Belizean First Aid

This morning the girls and I spent about 3 hours and 1/2 in the Silkgrass community hall learning CPR and first aid. The fun part was that the first aid was tailored to Belize. No 'what to do about frostbite' instead we learned what to do about jellyfish, stingray and scorpion stings and snake bites. We also learned what was wrong with Kori's hands. (that's supposed to be the hook that keeps you reading till the end - no peeking ahead!) So for those of you planning a visit to Belize or other warm coastal regions, here's the scoop on your Belizean first aid kit:

Jellyfish first. The only fatal jellyfish are the man o' war and they aren't actually real jellyfish, just shirt-tale cousins. If you get hit by the tenticles of the jellyfish we have here, close to shore what do you do? I hear all of you yelling 'pee on it!' Ok, you could do that. It's kinda gross and not the best choice but it would help. The best choice, though, is the one I would choose over that one - vinegar. Preferably at room temp. So your Belizean first aid kit should include a small bottle of vinegar to pour over the painful jellyfish 'sting' until the toxin that is on your skin is neutralized and the pain stops. The absolute worst choice (useful if you are really angry at the jellyfish victim and want revenge) is to pour fresh water on it. This will intensify the pain by releasing more toxin.

Next, stingray. There are lots of stingrays that hang out in the sand close to shore. They get irritated if you step on them and they fight back. The scarey part of the stingray is the tail. It can actually pierce right through your leg if you get hit just right by a fairly large ray. More likely is a puncture or poke. The tail releases a toxin into the broken skin and this toxin travels through the bloodstream causing the pain to move up the body. Not even close to fatal but painful! Sadly there is nothing you can put into your first aid kit to help with this. You need to get inside and soak the wound in the hottest water you can possibly stand without scalding yourself. Do this until the pain stops and the toxin is neutralized. Then treat the puncture with anti-biotic cream and a bandaid. (or see a dr. if you are one of the few unlucky ones that gets stuck straight through.)

On to scorpions. Contrary to popular belief, scorpion stings are not deadly. They are, however, painful. The scorpion will slice you and leave .... yes - a toxin. It hurts! Into your first aid kit goes one of those cold packs that you pop. That's right, ice or an ice water bath takes care of the scorpion bite. If you don't have access to cold, the mayan remedy is to kill the scorpion and squish the guts onto the sting. Mr Peck (our resident mayan that knows everything) says it will heal the sting in five minutes flat.

Snake bites: don't cut and suck! The one and only thing to do about snake bites is to grab the snake and run to the hospital. No first aid - just go!

So those are some of the important ingredients in the perfect Belizean first aid kit. Since you are still reading, here's the scoop on Kori's hands.

These are bruises that showed up about a week ago. She also got a blister on one hand so we thought she had maybe burned herself somehow. But it just didn't seem right. Then we thought maybe she had accidently brushed up against some coral when she was scuba diving. But, again, it didn't look quite right. We took her to Nurse Judy and she was stumped but told us to keep a very close eye on it in case there were more blisters or it started to spread. Then, today at our first aid training, Judy took another look at it. Because Kori's hands are actually clearer and less bruised now than they were (the pictures were taken today so this is them looking better) Judy could see the bites. Yes, bites. Kori was bit by fruit flies. They inject an anti-coagulant and usually leave a small bruise. For some reason, Kori reacted rather severely to the bites and got this bad bruising across her hands. We didn't even know fruit flies bit! Another proof to the rule: everything bites in Belize!