As part of an editorial feature to be published on the surfing and oceanic news website
www.surfline.com, members of the Wrightsville Beach Ocean Rescue team helped demonstrate effective ways to treat a variety of injuries that may occur in the water.
Orchestrated by Wrightsville Beach-based adventure photographer DJ Struntz, the photo shoot that took place Wednesday, Sept. 10 will accompany the feature, which will be written by Charleston writer Chris Dixon.
The entire surf rescue feature on Surfline was sponsored by North American Rescue, a Greer, S.C., company specializing in advanced first aid and trauma kits for use by the U.S. military, police departments, EMS units and now for the world of action sports.
Struntz said he became involved with North American Rescue for the purpose of creating kits for the action sports world.
“I got involved with them because I saw a need for that kind of gear in the action sports, fishing, diving and boating communities because there were not any good kits on the market,” Struntz said. “You would spend $400 and get about $400 worth of bandages, but not anything that could actually make a difference for a traumatic injury.”
The new kits contain items like tourniquets, ventilation systems, trauma dressings, burn dressings, bandages, syringes, wound cleansers and wound irrigation devices.
Using materials from those kits, ocean rescue captain Jeremy Owens and the other seven lifeguards present for the photo shoot demonstrated ways for surfers and watermen to treat lacerations, major bleeding, c-spine injuries and drowning.
“We want to make sure people understand not to make themselves victims but to show surfers the way to handle rescues in the surf if they do come across a surfer or swimmer in distress,” Owens said.
The method of reviving drowning victims ocean rescue demonstrated reflected the method of treatment the team switched to during 2014 that helped save lives at Wrightsville Beach this summer.
“People who drown need to be ventilated using airway adjuncts,” Owens said. “There has been a strong push for hands-only CPR and that works great for cardiac arrest incidents on land, but when someone drowns there is no oxygen in the body stream and that is the source of the cardiac arrest.”
Struntz and Owens said getting the word about proper medical treatment out to the surfing community would save lives with more professional and amateur surfers pushing boundaries by surfing remote or dangerous surf spots.
“Surfers are the ones that spend all the time in the water and are the ones that see these things happen,” Owens said. “Getting the message out about what to do when it does happen hopefully will save some lives.”
For more information about the action sports first aid and trauma kits, visit www.narescue.com/adventure
email [email protected]
