Scouting Injuries Or Accidents

[SeattlePioneer]

So what kind of accident injury situations have you encountered while on Scout activities or outings? Who took charge and dealt with the problems? How effective were those interventions?

 

How well prepared was your group to deal with the problems in terms of materials and training? What needed to be improved?

[Scoutfish]

The only incident we ever had in our pack was while Pack Family Camping.

 

During the after lunch free time..some scouts decided to climba pine tree. The branches were MAYBE 1" thick where the scouts were climbing.

 

Now, this was during free time, so the kids were under their parents control at this time. Pretty much all of the adult leadership were either talking amongst themselcves about upcoming activitiesor hanging out with their own families.

 

The parents of teh climbing scouts were sitting in folding camp chairs less that 20 feet away and watching the kids.

 

Now, we aren'taperfect LNT pack, but damn if we don't try our best to be as good as we can be.

 

WE mentioned several times during each day anfd the two meeting before the campout about not climbing trees, breaking branches, bushes, metting up the habitat.

 

No need to break trees or bushes for fire wood either as we had it covered.

 

WEll, sure enough, one scout fell from about ten foot up and landed just right to break his collar bone.

 

And you know who's fault it was?

 

Yep! MIne and every other leader. You know who's fault it wasn't? The parents!

 

 

WEll, that's the way they sw it. But we explained that the scouts were hanging out with the parents, that the parents were watching the whoe time, and that both the scouts ands parents ignored everything we repeatedly said.

 

Not sure if the parents ever decided they were actually responcible or not, but they didn't try to hold us for it.

[Eagle92]

I've seen a bunch, but one that stands out was a guy deliberately infected a blister he had so that he wouldn't go backpacking during training. So he didn't have to backpack after all. But he did have to stay at training, and he had KP and latrine duty for the adult staffers while the patrol backpacked Patrol carried him to the patrol guide. Then rode to the base camp to see the doctor.

 

Now I was the victim of hypothermia, but didn't realize it until after the fact. Scouts in my patrol took care of me. Didn't need an evac, and it would have been interesting as an evac would have entailed a float plane. I was 4 hours north a Montreal in the Canadian Wilderness

 

Pretty much the scouts and/or leaders have been able to take care of it. Sometimes folks needed to go home, sometime they have to go to the hospital to get it checked out.

 

To be honest, the absolute worst thing I've seen was when I was training for a "hoods in da woods" program. One of my fellow students recently had surgery, and while OK for doing a 50+ mile canoeing trip, he did have to be careful. Well he had some complications, first getting feverish, then passing out. While he was feverish, we aimed for the nearest park where he could be evacuated. The trainers did what they could, while the rest of us was told to set up camp, get dinner ready, and keep out of the way and busy. He had to be air evaced. He rejoined us at the base camp 3 days later. He was joking around stating that he had to do something to get some meat, as the group had several vegans, who kinda forced their belief on us for the trip.

[CA_Scouter]

Not an injury, but the troop was tested on a day hike we did a couple of years back. My JASM asked me if he could fake an injury to see how the others would respond. I moved the ASM's and myself out of earshot and he faked a sprained ankle. Now this kid was 6'4" and 200+ lbs so this was no small matter. It turned out pretty good, two of the older ( Life ) scouts helped him out walking and also found a walking stick he could lean on... I don't recall if they tried to wrap the ankle or not, but he put on the show for close to an hour so it was a pretty good test.

 

 

[Eagledad]

We have lots of stories with a Troop as large as ours, but the most serious was an ASM who had a heart attack on a biking campout. It was pretty serious, but lucky for him there was a bike race going on in the area and they had an ambulance on stand by. We also had a couple of doctors on that campout as well and I think they saved his life.

 

I relate to Eagle92s hypothermia in the Canadian Wilderness because we had the exact same situation up there as well. I fully understand how it can get serious without realizing it. The temperatures are in the 50s, but with it raining, it comes on fast. Luckily we did realize what was going on and immediately took care of the scout by putting him next the fire with a cup of hot chocolate. That saved it from getting to the seriousness that Eagle92 experienced. It scared me and I am a lot more alert about hypothermia now.

 

Other than those two experiences, most injuries were a result of scouts horsing around or doing something they knew they shouldnt have been doing. I cant recall a single incident with knives except with scouts who had not been to been trained yet and should have been using one. We did have a few injuries with bow saws from scouts who didnt wear gloves but knew they were supposed to. By they way, the bow saw is the number cause of woods tools injuries by a factor of three.

 

I have two scars today from my scouting days. One from pinewood derby and the other from a Space Derby. I got second place on both those derbies for best looking. I wear those scars with pride.

 

Barry

[Gunny2862]

In defense of Scout Parents, on the first outing one Scout went on his father did a come along at a state park attraction kind of place to see what this Scouting thing was all about with this troop.

His kid decided to ignore instructions and run on this loose shale - which of course shifted, the kid fell and put a 5-6 inch long 1/4 inch wide gash down his knee.

None of the Scouts or the Adults had any F/A gear on them. "?" Yeah, that's what he thought too. No, I wasn't a volunteer on this trip.

The parent hiked the kid out to the car grabbed a clean workout towel(cut it up) and a workout band(the wide flat rehab kind) and bound it - put the kid back on the walk around with the Scouts and cleaned it up later when we got back to the trailer.

 

That parent is now a trained volunteer, and almost always has a F/A kit close by.

[Eagle92]

Point of clarification, I and the other scout did not, repeat NOT, need an evac up in Canada. Getting me to realize I had hypothermia and needed to use my survival kit's blanket, sterno can, and boulliou cubes was the key. Getting into dry clothes, in front of a nice hot fire, with a reflector blanket, and hot drink and food in us did the trick.

 

(This message has been edited by eagle92)

[gcnphkr]

Other than cuts, scraps, cactus and dehydration. We have had one broken arm (I believe he was running and fell) and one numb-skull scouter that went sledding and ended up with compression fractures of L3 & 4 plus the coccyx. And let me tell you, after 4 years that coccyx still hurts.

 

The main item that I've considered having the troop purchase is an AED. $1500 is a chunk of change, but with an aging scouter population along with the risk of a cardiac event in the scouts from an injury (a ball to the chest can stop the heart) it may be the best $1500 that we hopefully would never use.

 

We have an EMT that comes on about half of the activities. We also have people with WFA, an RN and a cop.

[OwntheNight]

Last year in August, we took our TTFC group on their last campout as TTFC patrols. We were hiking through a boulder range on our way back to the park entrance. One of the boys was walking up hill and lost his footing and ended up doing a face and body plant on some local vegetation we like to call a cactus.

 

Myself, and the 2 other ASM's got to the boy and found him covered on one side, from head to hips, in needles.We were able to get the needles off of him, but at the cost of 10 of the 13 bottles of water I had been carrying in my backpack. That scout ended up walking out of that park in nothing but his boxers and boots.

 

Our big problem, came when we started back on the trail.Once we had started back out on the trail, the other boys had been stopped for about 40 min. With the combination of heat and rest , the boys' bodies had gotten out of energy burning mode. They were all tired and hot and had used up their water supplies. Since we used the water I was carrying for the cactus, we didn't have much left for the boys. We ended up rationing the water to the boys who were more symptomatic of Heat exhaustion.

 

About 1/2 mile from the trailhead entrance, I was recognizing the symptoms of heat stroke;the mental acuity was diminished, my left arm was going numb. Pretty scary feeling.

 

We got all the boys out of there without further incident and got them back to our campsite to get them cooled down. After a couple of hours, they were ready to tackle another mountain, this time, we drove them to the lookout point on top of the mountain.

 

What did we learn from it?

 

Boys needed to be better hydrated by carrying a camelbak or a couple of nalgene's. Carry Duct tape for cactus. Schedule this hike in April instead of August.

 

We also learned that over half the boys exceeded our expectations and didn't have any issues at all. They were ready to find another trail when we hit the camp parking lot.

[Eagle69]

I had a kid pull a pot of boiling water off a backpack stove onto his foot on a backpack trip in the middle of a wilderness area. Another scout saw it happen and immediately had him go put his foot in the cold creek water. The adults put him in his tent and treated for shock and watched him. A few hours later he said he was hungry so we knew he was ok. The next day we divided his pack among the group, put a big tennis shoe on his foot and hiked out, we had to cross a river to get back and so one of the adults carried him across it. The doctors later told his parents that the action of the scout that had him immediately cool the foot off was a major factor in it not being as bad as it could be.

 

On the same trip I had a kid slip and chip a tooth crossing the river.

 

All parents involved never questioned our leadership or pointed fingers.

[NealOnWheels]

My first campout as Scoutmaster I had a Scout nearly die in a sledding accident. Scout suffered a concussion and a compressed spine. Was airlifted to a trama center. He fully recovered after a few months.

 

I as the Scoutmaster took charge. After we had the injured Scout in the care of emergency personel we had a discussion with the rest of the troop and explained what was happening and that I was available for anyone to have a private conversation with me. All Scouts in the troop handled the situation very well and were very supportive of the injured Scout.

 

Other than the brother, I think I took it harder than any of the Scouts. Thankful the Scout survived but had a nagging feeling that I could have prevented it. I thought I would be kicked out of scouting and would not have been upset about it. Thought that the family would leave the troop. But instead both sons became Eagle Scouts and both parents became very active on the Troop committee. Family became one of my biggest supporters.

 

Taught me a valuable lesson. That much of what we do in Scouting is risky. We need to do what we can to minimize the risks. We need the proper training to deal with emergencies. But we can't always prevent an accident.

 

SeatlePioneer,

 

Can I ask why you bring this up? In my situation my Scout Executive was prepared to help out with resources if the situation was any worse than it was or more than I was able to handle.

[Eagle92]

Not to change the subject, maybe go off on a tangent, but I would love to have First Aid MB required for First Class rank again. The public expects scouts to know their FA, and I think it is that important a skill.

[SeattlePioneer]

Hello Neal,

 

 

We have threads talking about raining in detail, but without a suitable context training is just training. The real test is what people are able to do when a problem occurs, and to find out about that you need to talk about real injury situations.

 

For example, I find it interesting that your Scout Executive took the time to discuss the injury your troop had with you and see what might be needed. Was this the District Executive or the Council Executive?

 

I used to find it instructive to read through the accounts compiled by the American Alpine Club of fatal mountaineering accidents each year in "Accfidents in North American Mountaineering." That was sobering.

 

I used to work for a utility company that compiled a description of industrial injuries each month --- that tended to be more enetertaining --- such as a person in an office cubicle who habitually wagged her foot and got it stapled in an electric stapler! But reading it each month tended to expose me to the kinds of risks people took and got me thinking about how to avoid them.

 

 

We probably ought to do more of that in Scouting.

[NealOnWheels]

SeattlePioneer,

 

It was the Council Executive. The Guide to Safe Scouting says that all major injuries or deaths are to be reported to the Scout Executive. Upon the report he offered involvement if needed. The DE was in the loop as well as he made the report on my behalf.

 

I personally had a certain degree of first aid training. In my situation about all I could do was immobilize and make the injured scout comfortable until paramedics arrived. I would have been able to perform CPR if necesary. We may have had a couple scouts able to perform CPR as well.

 

I could see a situation where leaders without first aid training might not have known how to deal with the situation. Leaders are not required to have any sort of first aid training. Even a First Class Scout is not required to have this level of training. It has been a while since I have looked at the First Aid Merit Badge but I would hope that it would have covered an event such as mine.

 

 

[Eagle92]

If memory serves, you treat as a spinal injury and immobilize. I HATE SPINALS! (and the caps are a poor emphasis to my feelings on spinals). It is covered in 4b of teh FA MB requirements.