
Where There Is No Doctor: A Village Health Care Handbook - homarp
https://store.hesperian.org/prod/Where_There_Is_No_Doctor.html
======
runjake
The companion books, Where There Is No Dentist and When Women Have No Doctor,
are also great. User tomp has linked to them in their comment.

Another great book is the US Army Special Forces Medical Handbook. I have an
ancient copy, but the following link looks to be it:

[https://www.amazon.com/Army-Special-Forces-Medical-
Handbook/...](https://www.amazon.com/Army-Special-Forces-Medical-
Handbook/dp/0464861071)

The Special Forces handbook has a wealth of field medicine for nearly every
scenario from combat trauma to gynecology to dental care, as they and Civil
Affairs personnel are out providing medical care to indigenous men, women, and
children (when they aren't killing them).

You can find free, legal PDF copies online with a little Googling. Preferably,
get the most recent revision as I've been told it's been updated substantially
since the IQ/AF wars.

Edit: The title appears to have been updated to "Special Operations Forces
Medical Handbook".

~~~
vram22
>Preferably, get the most recent revision

About what year (and month) would that be? Trying to find a copy. Sounds like
a useful doc to have for situations like travelling, hiking, picnics, etc.

~~~
runjake
The last one I'm aware of is a 2008 edition renamed to "Special Operations
Forces Medical Guide". There might also be a 2011 edition or even something
more recent.

~~~
vram22
Thanks.

------
tomp
Also see _Where There Is No Dentist_ [1] and _Where Women Have No Doctor_ [2].

[1] [https://www.surviveuk.com/wp-
content/uploads/2016/07/Where-T...](https://www.surviveuk.com/wp-
content/uploads/2016/07/Where-There-Is-No-Dentist.pdf)

[2]
[http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs12/Where_women_have_no_docto...](http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs12/Where_women_have_no_doctor-
op200m-red.pdf)

------
giardini
Most books, and apparently this one, skip the nasty stuff: when and how to
remove a hand, arm, or leg or how to treat (and I mean "remove bullets, sew up
and heal") gunshot wounds, etc. They almost always say "get to a hospital" or
"get to a doctor". It's as if all medical books available to the public are
written by lawyers concerned about liability.

I'd like a book that tells it straight - what you need to do when you're out
of reach of civilization or not close enough or you can't trust civilization
(e.g., you're in a war zone).

I don't believe that I couldn't remove someone's arm if necessary. After all,
one man removed his own arm once. But I'd feel more comfortable with some
instructions and some warnings on the way. As it is, were something like that
necessary I'm thrown back on my own judgement.

Sure, odds are slim, but I like to have info available.

------
curiouslurker
I came cross this book some time in 1991 or 1992, growing up in a developing
country. Not having access to or being able to afford Playboy or Hustler, it
was popular among my early teenage friends because of the explicit pictures of
the female anatomy!

------
StevePerkins
Oh wow, of all the random things to turn up!

Years ago, I occupied by commute time by learning some Spanish with Pimsleur
CD's. I'm nowhere near native, but got far enough along with it to take some
continuing education classes at a local community college. I built up a small
bookshelf of Spanish-language books, from various random sources.

One of those books is "Donde No Hay Doctor". I thought it purely an obscure
Spanish publication, and am ALMOST a bit disappointed to learn that it's a
well-known book in numerous languages.

------
Baeocystin
We had this book in Laos in the late 70's. (Parents were US Diplomats, nearest
real medical care was a plane flight to Bangkok.) The knowledge contained
within 100% saved lives while we were there.

------
amingilani
This is the first time I've ever run into a book with one of its few
translations being Urdu! Wonderful to see that someone translated it, but it's
unfortunate that the Urdu version is $33.95. At 4,756 PKR that's prohibitively
expensive for people without access to a doctor to buy.

~~~
teachrdan
You're right that the list price is too high for individuals in developing
countries to easily purchase. I believe the model is for a community clinic to
purchase a copy, or for individuals to pool their money to buy a copy for
their community. NGOs give away copies as well, with bulk purchases of the
book being discounted.

------
icarito
Great manual. I helped deliver two babies following this and the book for
midwives. Fortunately haven't needed it for anything else!

------
patrickxb
I have this book even though I live in a major city.

It's a great teaching manual and helps build up common sense to learn about
what can be treated at home and what is serious.

~~~
Waterluvian
Treated at home vs. serious is woefully undertaught.

I had never been to the ER before a few months ago. I had an accident with a
falling glass jar and sliced my finger open. I spent so many cycles doubting
if this needed a hospital visit or if I just needed a bandage.

I later asked the ER doctor and he said that I definitely needed to be here,
but maybe a quarter of the people out there in the waiting area don't.

~~~
ngngngng
I was in the 1/4th that didn't need to be there once. I was bit by a snake in
an unfamiliar area. Having grown up in an area with deadly snakes, I assumed I
needed treatment. The ER doctors laughed at me and told me that they don't
have poisonous snakes in the area.

Now I do a quick google search to check what snakes are in the area when
traveling.

~~~
arethuza
I was bitten by one of our cats a while back and assumed that I didn't need
treatment.

A couple of days later the wound didn't look to good and I wasn't feeling too
well and I went to our local NHS "Minor Injury Unit" who rapidly redirected me
to the full Accident & Emergency department where I was X-rayed and prepped
for surgery within about 20 minutes! Was told I would be in hospital for at
least a week - fortunately was out after only 3 days although I was getting
intravenous antibiotics in both arms at once for a while.

Turns out cat bites can be _very_ nasty - I since spoke to a nurse who told me
she knew someone who lost a leg to a domestic cat bite.

~~~
vram22
Wow, good that you thought of getting it checked.

>Turns out cat bites can be very nasty - I since spoke to a nurse who told me
she knew someone who lost a leg to a domestic cat bite.

Same is the case with leopard or other big cat bites, I've read. Used to read
books by Jim Corbett (the famous hunter of man-eater tigers (and leopards)),
and similar, as a kid; that may be where I read about it. I guess the reason
is that the food (meat) they eat sticks some in their teeth and decomposes and
grows bacteria, which infect people when they are bitten. In fact I read that
even if the big cat does not kill the person, there are high chances of dying
from infection from the bite.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Corbett](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Corbett)

Update: Just saw this from the link above, the story of how Corbett hunted and
killed a very large tiger, the Bachelor of Powalgarh:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bachelor_of_Powalgarh](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bachelor_of_Powalgarh)

~~~
arethuza
"you thought of getting it checked"

I guess its an advantage of systems like the NHS - the only concern I had
about money was what the car park bill would be (I had parked in the first car
park I saw). Turns out that the hospital in question has free parking so I
didn't even have to pay for that.

Bandwidth on the free wifi was pretty good as well!

------
aristophenes
I'm sure this book has saved many many lives and alleviated a lot of
suffering. As a young man I was in a situation to need it, and used it to do a
lot of things I wouldn't (and shouldn't) regularly be doing.

If you are going to be somewhere out of reach of medical care this is a great
thing to have with you, or to have at least read through if you can.

~~~
neonate
What were the things you used it to do?

~~~
aristophenes
Not surgery, not anything immediately life-saving or life-threatening, but
enough things that I would feel uncomfortable discussing it with people that
wouldn't understand the context.

------
thomble
I had a copy of this as a Peace Corps Volunteer. I can't ever forget the
picture of the "cholera bed."

~~~
exolymph
For anyone else who was curious: [http://notes-from-the-
congo.blogspot.com/2009/09/cholera-bed...](http://notes-from-the-
congo.blogspot.com/2009/09/cholera-bed.html)

Variations:
[https://www.google.com/search?q=cholera+bed&source=lnms&tbm=...](https://www.google.com/search?q=cholera+bed&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjX48izkY_hAhXX_J4KHevKDU8Q_AUIDigB&biw=1280&bih=622&dpr=2#imgrc=POHdRjfcRNeTrM):

------
kylehotchkiss
I read this before going to Nepal for some NGO work a few years back. The
premise of the book is that many, many things can be solved with clean water
and sleep, and that's helped give me the confidence to explore deeper in parts
of the world where there really aren't doctors.

Also notable! Don't load people up with antibiotics that aren't needed since
that's contributing to increasingly widespread antibiotic resistant bacteria
issues.

Read this if you've got a vacation to Southeast Asia planned because being
told "avoid lemons" and "avoid cold drinks" and then being prescribed a pile
of pills including antacids can be frustrating.

------
joelhaasnoot
Lived in the middle of nowhere many moons ago and this was our doctor! As a
teenager growing up I read this out of boredom and when all the other books we
had were already read

------
jfk13
Wow, a blast from the past! I remember being introduced to this book back in
1985 when I first went out to work in fairly remote regions of South Asia. I
wasn't directly involved in any sort of medical/health work, but this was an
invaluable resource both for myself and to try and offer help to local people
when no formal medical care was available.

Delighted to see it is still being maintained and used.

~~~
amingilani
Pakistan? One of the translations is in Urdu, and Pakistan is the only country
that speaks it. If so, I'm curious where in Pakistan. I live in Lahore, so I'm
personally much better off in terms of healthcare.

~~~
jfk13
Pakistan, India, Nepal; visits to a few other nearby countries. Yes, I'm sure
there's pretty good healthcare to be found in Lahore (although it may not be
readily accessible to everyone?); similarly, when in Karachi we had AKUH
(where a couple of my kids were born) available. It's a different story in
rural Sindh, though, or in remote districts of Nepal where it's a day's hike
to the nearest road, or among tribals in central India.

Re Urdu: yes, Pakistan is the only country where it's the national language,
but I also encountered it in Hyderabad (Deccan), where Urdu is widely used.
It's even one of the official languages of several Indian states.

~~~
amingilani
I actually didn't know Urdu was used as the official language of several
Indian states. I wish I was taught that growing up. Thank you for telling me
that.

Re: access to healthcare, maybe. The situation has gotten better, or I like to
believe it has, in Lahore. I'm, unfortunately, not too well aware because data
on this sort of thing isn't readily available or widely discussed. We just got
our federal RTI laws ratified.

~~~
unmole
OT: I'm sure there's a lot that Indians and Pakistanis are not taught about
the other side because the facts are inconvenient for the powers that be.

~~~
amingilani
And we're also taught a fair number of facts that are just plain wrong as
well. Or at least I was.

------
spditner
A long time ago now, a friend worked on a partial translation of "Where Women
Have No Doctor" into Farsi with a grant from Hesperian -- and one of the
dilemmas they had was whether including (they did in the end) the more graphic
pictures would help or hinder their efforts in distributing it. I wonder how
much of a challenge literacy is in a place where no doctor can be found. She
talked about doing an audio cassette version, but again, the pictures are a
challenge there as well.

------
howard941
Cool free pdf. I bought a copy after I read about it in the Whole Earth
Catalog many moons ago.

~~~
thedaemon
The PDF is not free.

~~~
stuff4ben
The individual chapters are. There's links on the website
([https://hesperian.org/books-and-resources/](https://hesperian.org/books-and-
resources/)). They are a non-profit, so please support them too. I downloaded
all of the PDF's and will be buying the book as well.

------
Dowwie
There's probably no electric there either so you had better buy a hard copy
and not an ebook

------
lasermike026
In the future every familiar group with need at least one medic. We can make a
better future that this.

