Wilderness First Aid: A Pocket Guide Paperback – December 13, 2001

Just as described! Great for my job working in Colorado's back country. I would recommend to keep as a refresher for when you need to refer back to (hopefully it's never needed for severe cases), but knowing how to assess a patient with even minor symptoms is of dire importance in the back country and it's hard to remember all of that info on your own.

for a penny this is awesome.

well done

I owned the original printing of this book, lost it over the years and was thrilled to find it again here. The overall medical know-how it contains has seen me through years of countless injuries. That being said, as the first reviewer said, it is best to know most of this stuff before it happens. This version of the book is updated, and that brings with it some positives and negatives. Positives include more detailed procedures and larger typeset (easier to read; the original had significantly less page width). Negatives are primarily limited to simple readability. With the addition of more information, most of the authors sense of humor and short situational stories have been removed, and that's unfortunate. Not only did they make the book more readable, they framed the situation in which the reader may encounter the medical difficulties described within and helped solidify treatment procedures within the readers mind. Aside from that, it's a great and handy book, recommended reading for anyone who ventures out where emergency treatment and know how are invaluable tools.

to save on weight. When you are packing, every little bit of weight counts. I am planning on a week long backpacking trip and looking for a first aid book, one of the things I looked for was a small book. They reduced the font and the print size to keep the weight down... 6.4 oz =:) out of the 35 pounds I allotted some of which is food (about 10 pounds) and my pack (which weighs 5), you can see that ounces make a difference and you have to be judicious in what you include.

Although this book is informative and contains information you need to know in a wilderness medical situation, it would be difficult to find what you need in a pinch because the type font that was used is very small and narrow. My guess is that this is due to the cost of publishing a thicker book that would be necessary with a larger type font; but by saving the space and cost of printing, the price for the reader is that it is more difficult to find and read the information that you might need in a hurry. Also, there are no tabs to indicate different medical situations, which would really help. My advice to those who DO buy this book is to read it thoroughly before going out on the trail--don't wait until you really need it in a medical emergency.