October 2024 Column Marine First Aid Kits-Essential Life Savers Onboard Boaters know that when bad things happen onboard, help is usually not around the corner and can be critical minutes, if not hours away. When you take family or friends out on the water for a day of what you hope will be pleasant recreation and social bonding, sometimes the fates have other plans. When emergencies happen, it’s the captain’s job to look out for the crew and control the situation.
Although first-aid kits aren’t considered mandatory gear according to U.S. Coast Guard regulations, experienced boaters know that having a comprehensive and functional medical kit aboard should be considered an absolute must. If you think this is just another non-critical item that just takes up space and is rarely used, think again…it can be an absolute life-saver and I am here as living testimony to support that thought. NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE
About a month after the tragic 9/11 attacks on our country, I took a salty crew of three Swedes out on a shark charter aboard my old twin 200 Mercury outboard Phoenix 27 Express. As it turns out, this mid-October Sunday was a great fishing day 25-miles offshore, albeit in some foggy and rather sporty sea conditions. After tagging and releasing a few small makos, we had yet a third mako hit one of our baits. As the angler brought the estimated 80-pounder to boat- side for tag and release, I leaned over the gunwale, grabbed the leader with my left hand and was about to cut the wire near the hook with my right when the unthinkable happened. The always- dangerous mako lunged towards me and raked the top of my ungloved hand with seven rows of razor-sharp spiked teeth. Time stood still in that split second and my life passed before me as I realized that I was now in big trouble. Jonas, the leader of the group and the only one who spoke passable English had the quote of the day,“This is very bad!”No kidding dude, as the top of my right hand was bleeding profusely from at least five different cuts and puncture wounds.
Things were getting out of control really fast and time was of the essence. I had to overcome my momentary panic and think fast. I instructed one of the crew to tie a towel above my elbow as a makeshift tourniquet to slow down the bleeding and had Jonas retrieve my medical kit where the stainless steel snips were employed to trim away some of the ripped skin. The next step was to put disinfec- tant on the wounds and then I literally Crazy-Glued all of the open wounds back together, wrapped them in clean gauze and then sealed it all with a layer duct tape. It did the job and remarkably, after taking a trio of Advils to mitigate the pain and drinking a lot of water to rehydrate, we continued fishing in the Viking tradition. An hour later, we were blessed to land the fish of the day, a 310-lb mako that was the catch of their lifetimes, making a great story on their flight back to Europe. A doctor buddy drove me to the hospital that evening when I returned back to the marina and the Emergency Room medical staff was amused by my fix-it skills as they stitched my hand back together more professionally. Without that emergency medical kit, I might have bled out and the Swedes would have been lost at sea.
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