Long-Term Survival

Abstract

Long-term survival is a lonely state. It is a very personal struggle, and no-one can take this burden from the victim. Today many survivors are fortunate enough never to experience this as they are rescued in a comparatively short time. Sometimes help is no more than minutes away, sometimes hours may pass, and sometimes days, although this is rare except in some major disasters such as earthquakes, tornadoes or war. First-aid, be it medical or psychological, is designed to sustain the life of a casualty long enough for him to be evacuated to professional and technological assistance. It is to support this short-term, acute first-aid intervention that most training courses are designed and this is as it should be. There are occasions, however, when an individual or group of individuals find themselves trapped in a long-term survival situation. This can arise from large-scale natural disasters such as hurricanes, flooding, earthquakes, shipwreck, certain war conditions, kidnapping and hostage taking, incarceration in prisoner-of-war and concentration camps, nuclear devastation (civil accident or military intent), entrapment in caves or mines, airline crashes in remote regions, and many others.