Wilderness Medicine: Beyond First Aid (5th Edition) by William W. Forgey

The Globe Pequot Press, Guilford, CT 06437.

Book Review by Mel Baughman

This 246-page book will become a permanent part of my canoe trip first aid kit! It was a tough read from cover to cover because of all the medical jargon, but now that I'm familiar with its content and organization, I can use it as a reference to look up particular medical problems and symptoms. Major chapters address assessment and stabilization, body system symptoms and management, soft tissue care and trauma management, orthopedic injuries, bites and stings, infectious disease, and environmental injuries. One appendix describes recommended contents for a medical kit that is divided into modules depending on whether you have access to prescription medications. I was surprised to learn that a relatively small medical kit could handle a wide diversity of problems. Another appendix describes international immunizations. The book is fully indexed to enable a reader to quickly look up a topic, symptom, or body part. It truly does go beyond first aid. In fact if you don't have any first aid training and haven't read a simple first aid book, this book will be intimidating. But I can't imagine a medical problem arising on a canoe trip that wouldn't be covered by this book. The patient still may suffer or die, but at least you'll know why! Fortunately it's always the other person that gets sick or injured, right? Although much of the book is useful to canoeists like me, there are many techniques and medications that can be effectively used only by professionals such as wilderness educators, search and rescue groups, EMTs and paramedics. Fortunately the book first offers treatments that can be used by laypersons and then adds other treatments that may be more appropriate for trained professionals or people with access to prescription medications. Every word, sentence, and page is packed with information. My only complaint is the extensive use of medical jargon when such jargon is really unnecessary. "Doc" Forgey often defines a medical term using common language, but then persists in using the medical term instead of the common language. The author should reverse his use of terms or just omit many of the medical terms to give his book wider appeal.