American Redoubt Medical Facilities and Hospitals
Have you considered American Redoubt Medical Facilities and Hospitals as part of your Redoubt Bound plans? I recently realized that we had not…
A Couple of days ago I was working on one of our vehicles when I heard my better half yell my name and ask for help. As I looked around the vehicle I instantly saw why; she had a solid stream of blood running down the front of her leg, the result of a kitchen device that was dropped and bounced up and sliced her leg. Could have happened to any of us…
American Redoubt Medical Facility and Hospital Considerations
We got inside and began to consider our options. First get the leg elevated and apply pressure with a few gauze pads pulled from our kitchen first aid kit to slow/stop the bleeding. I took a good look at the cut; it was about 3 inches from end to end and “appeared” to be about ¾ of an inch deep in the middle. Then it came down to a choice between going to the emergency clinic or directly to the hospital. After we got hold of a nurse that told us to come to their emergency clinic we headed in that direction. 9 stitches and 2 hours later we were on our way home with pain medications and stories from a great doctor that did what appeared to be an outstanding job getting the better half stitched up.
what would have happened?
Once we had my beautiful wife at home and settled in I got to thinking about what would have happened if we had already been in our “American Redoubt location”? How far away would an emergency medical facility be and yet still be a reasonable distance? Had we put enough research into medical facilities in the areas that we were considering? How far away is a reasonable and acceptable distance? Will an ambulance even go that far out or is a “Life Flight” type of service available? WOW, I thought, this is a big hole in our plans that needed to be filled quickly and that could entirely change our “redoubt location” search parameters… So we got busy…
Beginning with the basics I began to brainstorm on what questions I’d ask myself to assure we had a good plan. Here is what I came up with in short order…
- Any special medical needs or requirements (High BP, Diabetes’s, Dialysis etc.)?
- Does or can the hospital or medical facility meet these needs?
- Does or can the hospital or medical facility provide or have an staff specialists?
- Can you transport yourself or is help needed?
- How far away is an acceptable distance from your “redoubt location” and a hospital or emergency facility?
- Will an ambulance go that far out or is a “Life Flight” type of service available?
- How often do you or your family members visit a doctor?
- Do you have or plan to have transportation that is reliable and capable of handling weather and/or difficult travel ways?
- Do you have “spare medicines or supplies” (snowed in or road washed out?)
So with this short list I began to look for answers to the questions above and applied them to the “American Redoubt Location” that we had been considering…
special medical needs or requirements?
Obviously, this is a personal question that you first must ask of yourself or your loved ones; assuming you don’t already know. But you must be honest with yourself, no way around this as we all get older and have more physical issues. This is just nature at work and to ignore this would be a very bad thing. So, I won’t spend any more time on this point but I need to say that this is the starting point of this discussion and please do not kid yourself and take on more than you can or will be able to physically handle. The American Redoubt is in the northern part of the USA and like the upper Mid-west can get very brutal in the winter. If being snowed in makes you uncomfortable or presents extreme risks due to physical issues you really need to stop and truly consider what you are doing.
reduce our distances and look at less house and property
I’m in my mid-fifty’s and had to have this conversation between my better half and we and concluded that we needed to reduce our distances from town AND look at less house and property. I HATED this but I am a realist and knew that as we both continued to age dealing with more and greater could be a very bad thing… A quick side note; if you have kids or any younger “personnel” that may stay with you should take this into consideration. That “young blood” could allow you to once again get more and greater… Always something else to consider…
can you transport yourself?
If you answered the previous question you likely have already considered this point. If you or your better half is incapable or physically limited in driving ability this must be considered. Is it even safe to deliberate this move if these circumstances are present? Be a realist and know your limits. I really don’t want to rain on your dream, I know I didn’t want to consider my own limits and felt 35 again and able to take on the world. WOW, time for a wake-up call folks! Perhaps there are ambulance services that cover the area you are considering? I’d suggest a call to the local hospital to see what if any specific are when it comes to what their ambulance staff will do or how far they will go. Here is where the saying “Plan for the Worst and Pray for the Best” comes into play.