(upbeat music) Hey, welcome and thanks for watching Arkansas TV.

I'm Steve Wildman Wilson, I'm your host here on Naturally Wild each week, the only statewide outdoor TV program in Arkansas.

Hey, that's why we call this station Arkansas TV.

Well, if you tuned in last week.

Now, it was a wild show.

We talked about snakes of Arkansas.

Even had a couple live snakes here in the studio with us.

I thought it would be only fitting to follow that show up with a show talking about first aid in the outdoors.

Not just snakebites, but a lot of other things you need to be aware of while enjoying Arkansas's great outdoors, especially during the summertime.

Here to pass along some outdoor safety tips with me is Dr.

Elton Cleveland with UAMS.

Elton, good to see you again.

Well thank you Steve.

I'm really glad to be here and excited to talk about the outdoors of Arkansas.

Well, I was thinking back before we got to the studio, we actually met because of a snake bite, didn't we?

Many years ago, some 20 years ago.

I guess it has been.

Pretty close.

With your black lab.

That's exactly right.

You are not only an M.D., but you're a veterinarian as well.

Yes, sir.

And you also a professor?

Yes.

So would that make you a doctor, doctor, doctor?

Just two doctors.

A pair of docs.

Yes, a pair of docs.

Yeah, paradox.

Well, it's great to have you.

Good to see you again.

By the way.

I appreciate you coming on.

We're going to talk, like I said, some safety tips.

A lot of people in the outdoors dealing with heat, dealing with critters out there.

We won't have time to cover everything tonight, but we want to pass along some just some good, helpful hints and what we want to do for this show.

I mean, we got a first aid kit over there.

It's going to solve everybody's problems pretty much.

If you're going camping or something like that, you can carry one of those big first aid kits.

But if you're like me and him, we go fishing a lot.

You can't carry all that stuff with you.

So we want to we want to talk about some essentials.

I've got a little backpack here that I carry with me when I'm on one of my smallmouth bass fishing trips on Crooked Creek.

So as we talk about wasp stings and things like that, we're going to be telling you some essentials that you can take with you on the kind of a smaller first aid kit.

So how's that sound?

Sounds great.

I'm looking forward to it.

Let's start off with where we left off last week here about snake bites.

We had a couple of snakes in here and we told people, like I said, all snakes bite, but only six of them are venomous.

And I was shocked to find out when I talked to you a bit earlier we talked about ho to avoid bites last week and, you know, clean up your yard, just think like a snake is all you have to do.

But how few people die in the United States every year from snake bites.

We're very fortunate in the US.

Roughly only 5 or 6 people die each year of a snake bite.

90% of those are rattlesnake bites when they do die of a snake bite.

And even though the the volume is so low is due to the antivemon and proper rapid treatment of the snake bite is really what has allowed us to get that fatality rate so low.

Elton, does that count the number of people that die from heart attacks when they see a snake?

That one, I don't know, but I would, I would be one of those individuals.

I do not like the snakes.

Well, we've come a long way, especially with snake bites.

You know, when we were growing up, you and me both, there were a lot of snake bite treatments I can remember.

I remember a snake bite kit, in fact, where it had a razor blade in there.

They said, you cut and you suck the venom out.

No, no, you probably don't want more damage trying to do that than you would the snake bite.

You do more harm with nearly all the old myths and untried treatments.

The best treatment today is probably this right here.

A set of car keys.

A set of car keys.

Yeah.

What you're saying with that, just go to the nearest hospital?

Go to the nearest hospital.

There you go.

It's pretty simple.

I wouldn't stop at an urgent center or anything.

Go ahead and go to a major hospital.

They're the only ones, the antivenom is fairly expensive, so it's fairly expensive for the hospitals to keep it on hand.

So only the larger hospitals are probably going to have that.

You can call in and double check it, but you're more than likely going to be referred to a fairly large center.

Now, back when we were kids, car keys, I think some of these youngsters might recognize a key fob better.

Same difference.

Just get to a hospital is key there.

And that's regardless of what type of bite you have.

In other words, if you're if you don't find the snake and you have a bite and you're not sure if it's poisonous or not, is it just better to go?

A couple of things with that.

If you see the snake and you can identify it, first thing, do it.

Don't get close enough though to get bit again because you can get bit.

Also, if you kill it, be careful about picking it up.

We've had people get injected the second time because the snake could just move a little bit and inject them the second time.

So if you think you've been bit, remove your watches, your rings, shoes, things like that could be tight.

If you're not sure, honestly, start for the hospital anyway.

What will happen is most of the vipers that we deal with within 30 to 60 minutes, you're going to start having progressive pain.

You're going to have some swelling, you're going to have kind of a bruising, and then you're going to have a marked irritation of that.

And so you'll know within 30 or 60 minutes probably if you've been bitten or not.

Yeah.

So the main thing is just get to a hospital, get treatment because any doubt about it better be safe than sorry on that.

No doubt about it.

You know, a lot of people hike in this time of year, and of course they see snakes and a lot of other things.

A lot of people are not in good shape.

Right.

I try to stay in good shape, but sometimes I get winded walking up those hills.

What about heart attacks and things like that when you're on a hike?

If you're, know you're with an individual, I like for you to carry a product.

Aspirin.

That's aspirin.

What happened to those little tin bins that you've got aspirin in?

I tried to find one the other day, and the people in the pharmacy laughed at me because there was one lady in there knew what I was talking about.

The others had no idea what I was talking about.

The little carry, pill carriers we used to get at pharmacy.

Now I take a baby aspirin.

Are you talking about babies or adult?

This is an adult.

You want the full 325 milligram aspirin and should if they're having an acute chest pain, and it's going to be a little while, the sooner they get that, the better off they are.

Okay, so that's a good treatment for possible heart attacks or whatever.

Yeah.

If you think they're having a potential heart attack.

Let's get an aspirin as soon as possible.

Okay.

Good.

Good point.

Let's talk about you know, we were talking about snake bites while ago.

Very few people dying United States because of snake bites.

What about, I heard that more people die of multiple wasp and B stings than they do snake bites.

Probably ten times that amount.

Or maybe a little more.

Wow.

About 60 per year will die with that.

Most of that is an allergic reaction, though, and it's because they've had it before, they become sensitized to it.

And then they go ahead and, bingo, they're allergic to it.

And you need to get treatment on that.

Well I'm one of those.

If you don't know what that is this is called an EpiPen.

I've never had to use it, but you might want to explain.

I have my wife used to work with you at Children's Hospital.

So she knows this stuff.

She made me get two of them, but I carry one in my truck at all times.

And then one of my tackle box at all times.

Because you never know when you're going to get stung.

And I am allergic to them.

If you're that allergic, that one releases epinephrine and gives you epinephrine.

That is the antidote for a severe allergic reaction for you.

So things that will create some problems you'll get short of breath.

Your throat may swell, you'll get to where you can't breathe.

And very scary.

Very important to have that close where you can go ahead and give yourself the injection and counteract those symptoms.

Now, when I do that, I need to get to a doctor or hospital.

That's just temporary.

That one there will probably be temporary, but I like to go ahead and have a quick follow up.

Just because you can have kind of a rebound sometimes for certain individuals after an hour or two hours something.

So I'd rather have follow up just to be safe.

You know, once again, old remedies we've heard about wasp stings and chewing tobacco on them and all that stuff.

Anything you do treat, treat them with the actual sting itself if you're not allergic.

Really just the cool compresses, you can go ahead and put a little hydrocortisone ointment on them.

You can take a little bit of the dimenhydrate, those type of things to go ahead and counteract it.

But if they're a honeybee you need to, they'll leave a stinger in you every once in a while.

So you need to scrape that off.

Take a credit card and get that out because they'll still release a little bit of the toxin or venom into you.

So you need to get that stinger out as soon as possible.

What about hornets and yellowjackets?

Same thing.

You're going to use the phenyl dimenhydrate on them also Just go ahead and curb the reaction from that.

Cool compresses will make it feel better.

But I got stung by a big ole wood bee right between the eyes.

One of those carpenter bees?

Yep.

Whew.

And my eyes swelled up for two days I couldn't see and had to sit in the house a few days.

You better get you an EpiPen.

Cause I did the same thing.

I got stung right there with a big old yellow wasp.

And I mean, both eyes closed up on me.

Something probably a lot more people are familiar with, especially outside this time of year.

Ticks and chiggers.

That's a good way.

I like to explain ticks.

They do carry diseases.

We might want to talk about Lyme disease and things like that.

Okay.

Lyme disease I don't worry about.

All right.

Now, that's odd for me to say, but we're in Arkansas.

The deer tick is very rare around here, and we really don't see it carry the Lyme disease, Borrelia burgdorferi.

And so it's one of the things that we've had no cases until like '15 or '16.

And then we had two cases those two years, a few since then.

Most of those were individuals.

My veterinary class had a reunion at Lake Placid last year.

I was unfortunately wasn't able to go, but some of the classmates did.

We'd got out in the fall, looked around, things like that.

They're the ones that would bring it back.

And that's where we get most of the cases of Lyme disease in Arkansas.

But we are ground zero for Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever or Ehrlichiosis, some tularemia.

We're seeing one rickettsia disease, we really don't know what causes it, what it really is.

Fortunately, it's not very strong on fatality rate.

Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever is.

If you get a tick, most of those are carried by the Lone Star tick.

75% of the ticks that we're exposed to in Arkansas are Lone Star ticks.

The other one will be the dog tick.

And both of them potentially.

Yeah.

Ehrlichiosis is another one.

And that is Ehrlichia chaffeensis.

It was diagnosed in the military recruits at Fort Chaffee eons ago when I was relatively young.

So both of them can be deadly.

Both of them can be very severe.

If you find the tick on you, get it off soon as possible.

If you go out, if you're hiking in there, I want you to get a shower as soon as you get home, have Gale check you for ticks.

Check around the hairline anywhere.

Armpits.

Behind the knees.

Ticks are smart.

They find the thinner skin with good blood supply, where it's easy for them to work and get all their blood meal.

So very, very common.

So get them off as soon as possible.

For Lyme disease they have a better study.

It looks like the tick needs to be on you for 36 hours before you really get exposed.

Here, if they're a little swollen and you pinch that tick, you may have just injected Rickettsia into you.

So I'm hearing you say that some old folklores again, we used to say put hot matches on them, put fingernail polish to smother them.

The easiest way best way is to get tweezers and pull steadily.

Don't yank them off?

Exactly.

Don't twist, don't yank and just get and grab as close to the head as you can.

Gentle pressure, just pulling out.

And that is per the Wilderness Society.

You put anything on your tick bite after you do that?

I tend to wash it with soap and water.

Okay.

It won't hurt to put a little alcohol on it.

Help with infection.

Yeah, just watch for infection.

Hey, let's talk about heat related.

It's pretty hot outside.

Get up around 100 degrees here every year in July and August in Arkansas.

A lot of heat related problems out there.

Talk about sunburns very quickly.

Oh, I can walk through.

I can walk through the yard and get a sunburn on top of my head.

I can match.

Exactly.

Very common.

The young kids, the ones less than 24.

They're really prone to do that.

We want a little larger hat than you have.

Three inch brim, at least minimum cover up our ears.

We're very prone to ears, nose.

People that have been burned, they have a higher incidence of melanoma, which is very significant skin cancer.

So we really want to avoid it.

Use your sunscreens, apply liberally.

If we sweat, if you're swimming, do it very often.

Otherwise about every two hours and use a pretty good gob.

My mother was always very conservative and used a little bit and put on.

Don't do that.

Put a good amount to really protect your skin.

If you do get burnt, and we've all done that, what's the best treatment?

I know you need something cool, right?

In fact, if you'll go ahead and put any of the emollients in the refrigerator, Ointments, the little hydrocortisone, a little bit of, the sooner you put it on, it'll get cool.

And sooner you get them on.

Cool showers.

Cool compresses make it better.

A little thin Heidrun.

I mean, that one will help you with early.

Cut down the irritation and if it hurts a little bit, go ahead and take a little ibuprofen or acetaminophen.

That's a good point.

Yeah, I know I have to watch out for skin cancers as well.

And nowadays they've got clothing that is basically, sun repellent and even long sleeves.

And it's a cool it's a cooler material now.

It's not the old hot cotton like it used to be.

So there's a lot of ways you can prevent it.

But it still happens out there.

Still happens and it's very important.

I have trouble getting on my head.

If I'm sweating and I'm in the boat.

It's not good running 50 miles.

We wear a hat.

The floppy ones.

Yeah.

Staying with heat, what about heat strokes and overheating?

Dehydration.

That's a huge factor, especially out there.

There's really a progression of that.

And you need to really be aware of it.

With me being used to being inside in the air conditioning, I am very prone to heat the illness when I go out and fish on Saturday.

All right, so we have a progression of heat exhaustion, heat syncope, heat edema and then he stroke.

Usually it's related to temperature of our body and dehydration.

So if we're less than 104, we're probably just got heat exhaustion.

Less than 104 years old?

104°F.

All right.

Perfect.

But honestly, I'm not going to have somebody probably do a rectal temperature on me outside.

If I'm worried about that, they're going to dunk me in the ice bath.

If I am wobbly, dizzy, throwing up.

And the old classic heat stroke was hot and dry.

A lot of us still are really exercising, and so we're still sweating and the temp still may be elevated.

So a heat stroke, the difference between all the other heat illnesses and heat stroke is our mind.

If we're confused, if we don't make sense, or CNS has altered mental status, we call it, then yeah.

Medical emergency.

Get them there, cool them off.

If you can cool them, dunk them ice water.

Sooner the better.

See, I've heard that you shouldn't submerge them in the ice water.

You kind of do it kind of a different temperature and work up.

Get them in cold, Okay.

I put them on there.

Okay.

Just don't hold them under.

That'll cool them every time.

(laughter) And watching people, you got to watch people you're with and recognize these things early.

I guess everything evolves around trying to make sure you get it early.

Catch it early.

Catch it early because you've been out fishing.

You'll get out there and you'll get hot and you'll think, man, I'm really pretty thirsty.

But I hadn't been drinking very much.

And then you'll be reeling.

And then your finger just sticks Yeah.

Cramp.

Kind of a cramp.

And then you'll have to kind of jerk it loose.

So that's what that is.

You're already too late.

Oh, you need to be hydrating more and more.

And then after two hours of us sweating a lot, we lose a lot of electrolytes.

So we need to add kind of a sugar based electrolyte.

So that's what I was going to ask you.

Water is okay, but there's a lot of drinks with electrolytes.

And that's and I've also learned that it's best to hydrate not when you go, yeah, take plenty of water with you.

But do it a day or two before because you got to build it a preventive preventive maintenance I guess is what it is exactly.

I'm bad to have my coffee on the way to the lake.

I should not, on a hot day, do that.

I should be drinking a couple, three extra bottles, especially the night before, and I'm trying to hydrate more, so I should drop my coffee and drink more water going there to kind of preload myself.

If I could.

Just think ahead.

Before we run out of time, I know you fish, I fish and I had something happen to me.

I guess it's been 2 or 3 years, I've fished all my life and never had this happen, but I caught a bass, I've caught a bass before, but this one was flouncing and he got a hook in me.

He buried it past the barb and I say a lot of this, I've never been with him about had it done and I got it done.

And of course you got to, you got a hook in you and you got a fish flouncing, which is not feeling good.

And I'm by myself.

I didn't really have much choice.

I got I put the fish between my legs, and I got one of these and got the hooks out and held the fish, threw it back, and I just got a pair of pliers and grabbed that hook and jerked it out of there.

And it still hurts today.

My nerves are gone.

I understand you've been hooked before.

Quite a few times?

Not quite a few, but I have been before.

My grandson hooked me in the back and I had to teach him how to remove it right there on the water.

And tell me you've got a remedy for this.

And you brought.

I'm so glad you brought a fake arm that you didn't want to do this on me.

Yeah, I prefer not to go ahead and inflict pain or create problems with that.

But this is a fish hook that's in the arm.

It's foam rubber.

And it's past the barb.

And I've seen this on YouTube, but I've never tried it.

So what do you have here?

I go ahead and make sure I have a good pair of dikes in here.

You ought to carry that with you in case this happens to you on your trip.

But I cut the rings that split rings where I can get down to here, and then you'll take a good set of braid.

Braid line, braid line.

It works a little bit.

It's tougher.

Then you'll slide it underneath the hook.

Wait a minute.

Okay.

Under, under the eye.

Under the eye which goes over to the to the actual hook that's in the skin.

Past the barb.

Okay.

Then what you'll do is press down on the eye.

And what that does is tilt our barb up and take it away from grabbing the skin.

Okay.

Then I tell them I'm going to go ahead and jerk this on three.

I get real excited and I go, one, two.

Oh yeah, and it's gone.

And you've had that done to you?

Oh you bet.

Didn't even know it came out.

Oh, where were you when I got hooked?

That would have worked great.

But you almost have to have two people for that.

It can.

I've seen some go ahead and stick it on the edge of the boat and mash it down and jerk themselves out.

But it makes sense.

You're just getting that barb down.

Barb lined where it doesn't hang on the skin.

Right.

Other things out in the water talking about that.

Let's talk a little bit about CPR, first ai as far as drowning victims and things like that.

You got to know CPR.

Got to know CPR.

And really I would encourage everyone to learn CPR.

Where are some good places to learn more about this?

We're about out of time?

Does UAMS do that?

Red Cross.

Red cross has the program that set up.

They've got all the books, and I would encourage, a lot of the schools, a lot of the community centers, a lot of the community organizations sponsor CPR classes.

And so encourage everybody to take it.

You know, something during the summertime when kids are out of school, too, I know a lot of people riding 4-wheelers.

Do you see a lot of 4-wheeler accidents during the summer times?

Oh, way too many.

Yeah, well, one's way too many.

Talk about some of the problems you see there.

I know they, it's hot.

You tend to ride them in sandals and no helmets.

How important is that?

Unfortunately, at Children's we saw a lot of head injuries, a lot of broken bones, a lot of problems with that.

So helmets, really good boots, a lot of long clothing really protects them a lot.

And then I really like for nearly every one of them to have a driver education course, to learn how to use it appropriately, and then parental guidance, young kids.

Supervision.

Old men do some stupid stuff here.

And so, you know, it's one of those things we need to be aware and be with others and be very conscientious when we're driving, how we're driving.

You know, it's camping season too, a lot of people out camping.

And I know you leave food out and that attracts a lot of different animals like coons and things like that around there.

They can be dangerous as well, can't they?

They can be.

Rarely in Arkansas, southeast US.

If you see a raccoon during the day, I worry about rabies.

That was the highest carrier of rabies in Southeast America.

Coons are.

Coons.

In Arkansas, skunks are the largest ones.

And so if you see a skunk out during the day, go ahead, I would make the assumption that the skunk is rabid.

Stay away from it.

Keep your dogs away from it.

Watch things like that.

Immunize your pets.

What about bats?

Do they carry?

They do.

And they shed potentially for a while.

But usually it's one of those that you need to be bitten or have a fairly significant exposure.

Finding one in the tree while we're working on the house doesn't really qualify.

Yeah, but once again, if you get any, have any doubt, get to a doctor's office like that too.

I think one of the most important things we fail to mention here, if you're going on a hike or anything like that, is file a plan, let people know where you're going.

Give them a proximate time of when you're coming back.

Don't be like us now.

We tell our wives we'll be back at two.

They know that means about 4 or 5 in the afternoon.

But nowadays with cell phones too, you can, you can communicate a lot better than you could when we were kids there.

Yes, we can.

And my wife has not allowed me to go fishing by myself anymore.

Just.

Well, that's a good point.

And quite honestly, it's more fun to share the experience in the outdoors.

Always love it with a friend in the boat with us.

We have a lot more fun and it's safer for everybody.

Yeah, well, I appreciate you coming on.

And if folks want to know more information about UAMS and some classes, how they get involved.

How do they contact you guys?

Call the main number at UAMS and they'll be delighted to go ahead and look at opportunities and different programs and set you up with that.

Okay, good.

Once again, all this stuff we're going to be packing over here.

All the things I need to take on that trip with me.

Have you ever been smallmouth fishing up there on the Crooked Creek?

I have.

While we were in college, my roommate next door lived at Gasper, so we.

We hiked and waded Crooked Creek, small mouth fishing back on Hudson College.

You know one thing I always take with me on a trip like that anywhere, is a whistle.

Because that's lots of times you start yelling, oh yeah!

You start yelling for help.

Your voice will wear out pretty quickly.

So these things are always good to keep your first aid kit little, little pack there too.

Well, thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

You bet.

Hey, thank you for joining us tonight.

I hope you enjoyed the show.

Be sure and be here next week.

That's all the time we have this week.

We'll see you next time.

Right here on Naturally Wild.

This program was made possible by Arkansas Hunters Feeding the Hungry, East Harding Construction Company, David's Burgers, Greenway Equipment, Arkansas Farm Bureau, and the Electric Cooperative of Arkansas.

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