Different types of medical emergencies can happen on the homestead (your place of living the homestead life). There are breathing difficulties (asthma or allergic reaction), bleeding, heart attack, stroke and more. What can you do now to prepare for a medical emergency?
Given today’s 2020 world, lets talk about the most pressing medical emergency at hand, Covid 19. We all know to have our food stocked for a minimum of two weeks, limit your exposure to groups of people, and stay home if you feel sick.
BUT, what if …you can’t manage the illness at home and you need to go to the ER
a. if you go by car, chances are you or your family member will be able to communicate with the attending nurses and doctors the necessary information. Often times though, it is a stressful situation and you or your family will not be a very good historian to report information.
b. if you go by ambulance, time is of the essence and EMT and First Responders need valuable information immediately. If you are the person reporting to the EMT, you might not even remember simple information like date of birth for your loved one.
What can you do ahead of time to be prepared?
Double K has complied a medical checklist sheet that can be found at https://doublekhomesteadlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Medical-Emergency-Planning-Sheet.pdf.
It is strongly encouraged to complete one for each member in your household and share it with your other family members, through email of course.
on a personal note..
As I write, New York Gov Cuomo is talking about how America comes together in emergencies. He gives examples of currently 20,000 volunteer medical personnel traveling from across the US to help in New York. Gov Cuomo also shared examples at during time of hurricanes, power supply people, travel to states to assist in power restoration. Another example is volunteers coming together to assist in tornado cleanups. We also see many women sewing masks to help stop the spread.
It leads to me question of how can I contribute?
By trade, I am a dental assistant and have worked in various dental settings and have had different job duties. A dental assistant is used to serving and taking care of people. I have been recently laid off from this position.
I am also blogger. In this role, I think, how can I contribute as a blogger? I feel a sense of urgency about getting this worksheet to you. It is a small, small fraction of the larger good people are doing. If it could help even one family, then it has served its purpose.
I hope that people don’t have to be in that situation or any kind of medical situations. Take this extra step to help be prepared in a medical emergency. Put your completed worksheet in a clear gallon size plastic bag. Keep it in a simple place to remember so you can retrieve quickly. Remember to make a copy and put in your family emergency binder. The link how to do this can be found here: https://doublekhomesteadlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Emergency-Prep-Checklists.pdf
Best wishes and email me if you completed your worksheet. I would love to hear from you!
Always try to be as prepared for any kind of injury or emergency as you can! Especially living the homestead/farming life. You never know what will happen!
Yes, being prepared is important and if we can take measures in advanced it helps us to feel secured and less stress when the time arrives.
Thank you for putting this together! I love the flow of this, and it kept me engaged and positive since this is a very proactive approach to a difficult subject (especially right now). Really impactful!
Thank you Marly! I was a previous first responder and I can not tell you how important those first few minutes are in getting information quickly from a family is. We are living in a difficult time and just knowing that having things ready just in case, (no, not hoarding TP) makes us feel like we have a little bit of control in our life. Best wishes!
This is a very helpful worksheet! We keep a binder with all of our emergency info in it, but I see a couple of things on here we need to add to it. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you Karee! I am so happy to hear that you have a Emergency binder! It can be useful in an emergency or even when our computers crash and we have to look for passwords! I truly hope you don’t need to use the medical portion but isn’t it reassurance to know that it is put together?
Thank you so much for this! You know this is something we just don’t think about until it is too late sometimes. Love this information and post!
Thank you Angie for your love! Please reach out to me if you have questions!
This highlights an area of emergency preparedness that most probably don’t think of. Thanks for sharing!
You are welcome Ashley and in a way being prepared for emergency can help save you money also.