A severely injured person is always best carried on a stretcher. The easiest stretcher for a scout to improvise is the coat stretcher. For this two coats and a pair of poles are needed. The sleeves of the coat are first turned inside out. The coats are then placed on the ground with their lower sides touching each other. The poles are passed through the sleeves on each side, the coats are buttoned up with the button side down. A piece of carpet, a blanket, or sacking can be used in much the same way as the coat, rolling in a portion at each side. Shutters and doors make fair stretchers. In order not to jounce the patient in carrying him the bearers should break step. The bearer in front steps off with the left foot and the one in the rear with the right. A number of different methods for carrying a patient by two bearers are practiced. The four-handed {278} seat is a very good one. To make this each bearer grasps his left wrist in his right hand, and the other bearer's right wrist in his left hand with the backs of the hands uppermost. The {279} bearers then stoop and place the chair under the sitting patient who steadies himself by placing his arms around their necks.
First position
Fireman's lift
It will sometimes be necessary for one scout to carry an injured comrade. The scout should first turn the patient on his face; he then steps astride his body, facing toward the patient's head, and, with hands under his arm-pits, lifts him to his knees; then, clasping hands over the abdomen, lifts him to his feet; he then, with his left hand, seizes the patient by the left wrist and draws his left arm around his (the bearer's) neck and holds it against his left chest, the patient's left side resting against his body, and supports him with his right arm about the waist. The scout, with his left hand, seizes the right wrist of the patient and draws the arm over his head and down upon his shoulder, then, shifting himself in front, stoops and clasps the right thigh with his right arm passed between the legs, his right hand seizing the patient's right wrist; lastly, the scout, with his left hand, grasps the patient's left hand, and steadies it against his side when he arises.
WATER ACCIDENTS
Wilbert E. Longfellow,
United States Volunteer Life Saving Corps
The scout's motto, "Be Prepared," is more than usually applicable to the work of caring for accidents which happen in the water.
To save lives, the scout must know first how to swim, to care for himself, and then to learn to carry another and to break the clutch, the "death grip," which we read so much about in the newspaper accounts of drowning accidents. By constant training, a boy, even though not a good swimmer, can be perfectly at home in the water, fully dressed, undressed, or carrying a boy of his own size or larger. In fact two boys of twelve or fourteen years can save a man.
Swimming