I have a friend who takes it a step farther and always carries a one-handed tourniquet with him. I’m sure we all know about applying direct pressure. If a person becomes unconscious through blood loss, survival is unlikely.

Depending on which artery, a person can be unconscious within a minute. As part of the research for one of my fiction books, I was asking a doctor friend how long someone could survive if an artery was cut. Here’s an excellent article from the University of Minnesota detailing hypothermia and survival in cold water.

If you have known life-threatening allergies (or are asthmatic), you should always carry your medication. Have you taken first aid training? The Red Cross and other agencies often provide free or low-cost first aid and CPR training.Īn anaphylactic allergic reaction is a sudden wide-spread reaction that can affect many bodily systems, including your breathing. The American Red Cross recommends a “five-and-five” approach to delivering first aid. Is the Heimlich Maneuver the best approach to help when someone else is choking? Maybe not. Here’s a video on how to do the Heimlich on yourself. My stomach and throat hurt for many days, but I was breathing again. I managed to perform a crude Heimlich maneuver on myself using the chair. I couldn’t catch my breath and all I could think was I can’t die in front of them. My oldest two daughters were sitting in their highchairs at the table. One time, I was enjoying spinach dip on bread. Obviously, a situation where you are deprived of air is an immediate survival situation, whether you are in the wilderness or at home.

Three weeks without food (if you have shelter and water).

Three days without water (focus on shelter first).

Three hours without shelter in a harsh environment (unless the environment is icy water or you have severe bleeding).

Three minutes without air (or in icy water or with severe bleeding).

Three rules of survival