Wilderness emergency training set at Southeast

You're stuck in the woods with a medical emergency, miles or even days from the nearest medical center. What do you do?

Answering that question is at the core of a nine-day wilderness, first-responder course that will be taught at Southeast Missouri State University starting Saturday.

More than 15 people have signed up for the training. About half of the participants are recreation majors at Southeast. The others are involved in wilderness recreation and are coming from as far away as Minnesota, organizers said.

Participants will pay $550 for the course, which includes eight hours a day of training. "It's a really, really intensive course," said Jon Lowrance, who graduated from Southeast with a recreation degree and is helping to teach the course.

The classroom work will be done in Parker Hall. But the training will include numerous outdoor first-responder exercises including a nighttime, mock rescue in a wooded area near the Student Recreation Center.

Dr. Tom Holman, a recreation professor at Southeast, is enrolled in the course.

Holman has headed numerous wilderness trips. "I take students all over the country on wilderness adventure trips every year," he said.

He's been certified twice as an emergency medical technician. But he let the certification lapse.

"People need to have this," he said. "This is kind of standard for wilderness leaders." That would include everyone from forest rangers to remote-camp operators, Holman said.

In a wilderness emergency, he said, it's important to know how to make a litter out of backpack frames or ropes, or how to use a ski pole as a splint.

Participants in the course will be certified through the Wilderness Medical Institute founded by wilderness expert Buck Tilton.

Tilton will travel to Cape Girardeau to help teach the course. "He wrote the book on wilderness medicine," Holman said.

"Everyone who graduates from this course is going to be in some ways more prepared than an EMT," he said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123