Broken Wings: Planning for When You're Down

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A critical moment of vulnerability awaits us all. That moment when we—the prepared ones, the designated responders—find ourselves suddenly incapacitated during an emergency. What happens when you can't be the hero in your own story?

As we celebrate our 99th episode and over 10,000 downloads, we're tackling this often-overlooked aspect of preparedness. Using the example of someone recovering from open-heart surgery who faces sternal precautions (unable to lift, push, or even dress normally), we explore how quickly an emergency can transform when the caregiver becomes the patient.

Have you considered what would happen if you broke your leg during an evacuation? Or if you received CPR, which often cracks the sternum? Would your group or family know how to apply a tourniquet correctly, treat shock, or manage severe bleeding without your guidance? These aren't comfortable questions, but they're essential ones.

Quality matters tremendously in emergency situations. As we emphasize, "You don't want a discount steak and you don't want a discount tourniquet." Your life could depend on proper training and equipment distributed among multiple capable hands. Beyond physical preparedness, we also discuss the psychological aspects of emergencies—managing hysteria, fear responses, and group dynamics when strangers might join your circle during a crisis.

Looking forward to our milestone 100th episode, we're shifting our focus toward long-term resilience and 30-day self-sufficiency as the new minimum standard. Join us as we continue exploring survival beyond the typical 72-hour bug out bag mentality. What questions do you have about preparing for your own vulnerability in crisis situations? Send them our way as we embark on this next chapter together.

Reminder: Keep your medications together in one location to collect them quickly, as well a container or bag to transport them.

Have a list of all meds on the Fridge. Good for you to grab. Very useful for emergency responders. Typed is best.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're coming up on some outstanding milestones.
I want to talk about that, and Ialso have a very interesting
scenario for you.
So come on inside, let's getstarted.
Well, hi everybody.

(00:28):
I'm Bill Bateman, part of theteam here at Refuse to be a
Victim Personal ProtectionTraining.
We are located in theMedford-White City area of
Southern Oregon and we aretalking about survival way
beyond the bug out bag.
So it's been a month off.
I promised I was going to dothat and I did.
We're back and let's talk aboutthose milestones.
First, we are episode 99 today.

(00:52):
We have 99 episodes done so far, and that's kind of significant
because obviously, duh, thenext one's going to be episode
100.
And for that I want to do avideo episode and we're going to
do something a little bitspecial.
So that's all I'm going to sayabout that.
But 100 episodes, and we havealready and I just got a notice

(01:17):
on this already we have passed10,000 downloads, past 10,000
downloads.
Now, that's pretty exciting toknow that 10,000 people think
enough of what we're doing hereto download it and share it with
somebody else or save it forworking with at home, and I do
encourage everybody to downloadthis and to share it, and I can

(01:40):
only say thank you to everybodywho has gone out and spent the
time to keep one of theseepisodes and to share it with
somebody else.
10,000 downloads is a greatlandmark and 100th episode
coming up next, so thank you.
We are going on a new journey.

(02:01):
I think at episode 100, we hadsome firefighters come out to
where we live.
I live in a mobile homecommunity and we talked about
bug-out bags and it wasinteresting to hear from the
firefighters about the bug-outbag and they stressed, based on
what they have seen throughincidents, making sure you have

(02:22):
good information.
You have thumb drives full ofcontacts and how to reach your
insurance company and what yourinventory was in your gun case
and all of those things Makingsure after the fire you are able
to deal with the problems.
So we're going to talk aboutthat in the weeks to come.

(02:44):
We've spent a lot of time onthat previously and it's
interesting to look at the ideaof what we're doing through the
eyes of the professionals.
The interesting scenario Iwanted to put forward with you
and this is kind of aninteresting viewpoint you know

(03:06):
how you tell the story and youor I are always the first
responder or we're the one goingto be bandaging or we're the
one going to going to controlthe situation?

(03:27):
What if you're injured?
If you are not the person whodoes that?
Normally you are At our house.
Normally I would be the onewho's going to take care of a
lot of the things, but if I gotinjured, my wife would have to
do that or someone else wouldhave to do that In your group.

(03:52):
We've talked about assigningroles.
If you've got a group and Ithink that's a wonderful idea
having enough people so it's notjust you and your significant
other we are going to need morethan each other.
We're going to need friends andneighbors.
If things start getting really,really ugly due to a disaster or

(04:16):
a civil unrest or any of themany problems that can pop up
today A weather incident we'reseeing more and more of those
Tornadoes, earthquakes Well, youknow the whole litany.
If you're not the one who isable to give aid, there's a lot
of things you need to thinkabout, and part of it is

(04:37):
restructuring your whole mentalpicture.
I'm used to being able to runin and say okay, guys, here's
what we're going to do.
If I couldn't do that, howwould I cope?
First of all, what would I doto be of use?
What skills do I still havethat I could still share with

(04:58):
the group?
And these are the type ofthings I'm going to ask you to
think about this week.
When a situation occurs, and itdoesn't really matter why, I'm
going to use a friend of minewho recently underwent open
heart surgery.
That was a month or so ago.
They're in good shape, they'reback, they're taking care of
business, saying their prayers,eating their vegetables.

(05:20):
But one of the things they doin heart surgery is they cut
your sternum.
That's the part that holds yourribs together, and there's a
thing called he explained thisto me sternal precautions, which
means, well, the sternum ishealing, and I guess they
actually cable this thing backtogether in addition to the

(05:43):
sutures.
Well, the sternum is healing.
You can't lift.
You can't lift anything heavierthan a gallon of milk.
You can't open a car door.
You're not even supposed to getdressed with your hands above
your head.
Now, cpr does the same thing.
Cpr cracks the sternum andyou're going to be out of

(06:06):
commission there.
So if you have been therecipient of CPR, you're going
to need medical attention,obviously, but you are going to
be disabled.
You are going to be unable todo things you normally could,

(06:29):
unable to do things you normallycould.
If you have a situation that,let's say, this individual had
the surgery, if you've had anytype of surgery, you're out of
commission for a while and if anemergency happens in that
situation while you arerecovering, how are you going to
change the dynamic?
Each of us has our roles in ourfamily on what we would do and
what is expected.
Well, okay, what would happenif I was unable to complete my

(06:54):
roles for whatever reason?
Maybe in the emergency I gothurt, maybe I broke my leg,
maybe I got impaled on a pieceof rebar, maybe I took a gunshot
wound?
If I'm no longer able to dowhat I thought I can do,
self-care becomes important.
Are those in your group able tocare for you?

(07:18):
I've often mentioned groups andgetting together, and I think
it's very important We've talkedabout this Having the ability
to share skills.
Yes, I know first aid.
Yes, I know CPR.
Yes, I know advanced bleedingand trauma care and I'm very
fortunate, so does my wife Inyour group.

(07:42):
Not everybody's going to be ableto do stop the bleed or deal
with a serious injury If themain caregiver is out of
commission.
What are you going to do?
What is your process?
Now, let's say I got hurt and Icouldn't do this or I couldn't

(08:04):
do that.
There's other things I canstill do.
I've been doing this for well15 years now.
So we have, in our house, quitea skill set built up.
If you are new to prepping, ifyou are new to being your own

(08:24):
first responders until actualhelp can arrive, don't put all
your eggs in one basket.
I think is what I'm saying fortoday.
If you have a set of skills,that's excellent.
Share those skills within yourgroup how to tie a tourniquet,

(08:44):
how to stop the bleed, how toclean out if you get something
in your eyes, or if you get somechemicals, how to flush that
out and what to do afterwards.
Aftercare is just as importantas first aid just as important

(09:05):
as first aid.
So, as we look at the changingscape of life around us and how
things can get different, howthings can happen in unusual
ways, let's look at beingprepared from the other side of
the coin.
Yes, you're going to be theleader.
Yes, you're going to be goingin directing, but if you can't
do it, what can you do?

(09:26):
What skills do you bring?
What are you bringing to thepicnic?
Someone sloughing off or notdoing their part?
That's not what I'm saying, andI'm sure you realize that this

(09:47):
is a case of in an emergency.
Take it to the next step.
We always say what would you doif an emergency happened right
now?
All right, what would you do ifan emergency happened right now
and you got hurt?
What is your plan?
If you don't have a plan, getstarted putting one together.

(10:07):
Look at what you're going toneed to do.
Let's stop and think about thetype of injuries you might
receive A break or a sprain or aminor puncture of some sort
from getting impaled on a pieceof broken rebar, a piece of
cracked wood.
These are things that arerealistic.

(10:28):
Hopefully, gunshots are not apart of a realistic scenario.
But knowing how to deal withthat serious trauma, serious
injuries, that serious trauma,serious injuries what are you
going to do?
Dealing with shock, dealingwith blood loss?
If you have the experience todo it yourself, I urge you to

(10:51):
train the others in your groupto do it as well.
So if you're unable to do it,they have the skills, they have
the ability to prevent theproblem from getting out of
control.
So that's.
I wanted to bring that upbecause, talking to this friend
of mine, this guy is normally,you know, running, jumping,

(11:13):
climbing trees.
He's out there taking care ofbusiness Not so much now and he
brought it up.
He said, boy, I'd hate to havean earthquake happen today.
Yeah, I can see how you would.
So let's consider that Sharingyour planning within the group.

(11:34):
How do you stop the bleed?
How do you wrap a wound?
What do you do for a tourniquet?
I think everybody in a groupshould be able to use a
tourniquet and get a good one.
Oh my God, I've seen some junkout there and $3, $4 tourniquets
.
That's like a $3 and $4 steakPeople.

(11:55):
You don't want a discount steakand you don't want a discount
tourniquet.
These are things that are justtoo important.
You don't want a bad meal, butyou don't want to be bleeding
out or do damage to yourself.
Let's look at the possibilitythat you may not be at 100% in

(12:17):
an emergency.
I have not mentioned this inthe entire time we have been
together.
I've always come in from thepoint that you or I are going to
be the caregivers.
Not necessarily the case, folks.
It can happen in an instance.
So let's look at that.
And now, talking about the100th episode that's next week,

(12:43):
next week or next time we gettogether the 100th episode I'm
going to start moving in somedifferent directions.
We've talked about this, it'salready begun.
I'm going to concentrate lesson products and more on what we
just did, looking at survival,not so much as having a couple

(13:05):
granola bar and a clean set ofunderwear for a couple of days,
but looking at the necessity ofof having 30 days
self-sufficiency, and that's theminimum right now 30 days of
self-sufficiency.
Let's look at that and explorethat area.
If you've got questions as wetalk about these things, things

(13:29):
are going to pop into your headand it's going to be like oh
well, what about if I'm hurt?
Or what about if somebody goescrazy?
There are people who, understress, get really hard to deal
with.
You're going to have to need todeal with that in your group,
especially if you don't know thegroup.

(13:51):
In my case, and I think in manycases out there, you're going
to be with people.
You know people.
You know how they're going tobehave, how they're going to
react.
If you have strangers a, howare you going to include them?
Will you include them in thegroup and how are they reacting?

(14:13):
How do you deal with someonewho gets hysterical or who is so
scared they can't function?
These are some real issues Now.
These are not quick fixes.
Obviously, these are thingswhich require some study and
some preparation and gettingsome professional information on
how to do this, and this is whyI'm mentioning it now, before

(14:38):
the problem occurs.
That's something I alwaysrecommend Planning in advance,
going through it, havingscenarios and actual drills,
actual rehearsals.
You have fire drills at ourhouse.
Okay, what about getting readyto go?

(14:59):
We're rebuilding our go bagplan, our evacuation plan, here
in my mobile home park.
Interestingly enough, a coupleof weeks ago, we were sitting
around the pool area and therewas a grass fire.
We could actually see flames.
Okay, this is the first part ofJune and we're looking at
flames from the swimming poolarea.
And there was a grass fire.
We could actually see flames.
Okay, this is the first part ofJune and we're looking at

(15:19):
flames from the swimming poolarea.
Maybe it's time to take anotherlook at that evacuation plan,
just like with the evacuationplan, looking at how to deal
with emergencies of all sorts,those tough questions.
Put yourself in the situationof the victim, not the, not the

(15:43):
first responder.
How are you going to get fromhere to there?
If you fell down in your home,how would you get help?
Lots of different things totalk about.
We we're going in thatdirection.
I urge you to send me yourquestions.
The email address is at thefront of the broadcast where you
come in.
As always, we want to inviteyou on out to the range.

(16:07):
We've got a lot of good thingshappening there, everything from
the non-ballistic self-defenseclass right up to and including
advanced tactical training.
Lots to talk about.
If you're interested inclasswork, check out the website
.
If you're interested in comingon out and getting more

(16:28):
information, we're there byphone, we're there by email and,
again, I look forward to yourquestions and I look forward to
seeing you next time we gettogether for our 100th episode
of Survival Beyond the BugoutBag.
Thanks.
The preceding program was apresentation of Retired Guy

(16:59):
Productions.