Could you save someone’s life in the wilderness? All CPR/First Aid is NOT created equal, see the difference here!

Mike Stephens MIGHT have been working deep in the forest for the Redwood Forest Foundation when he took a fall and hit his head.  The Usal Lumber Company crew MIGHT have come upon him and needed to know how they could treat Stevens and get the big man to medical treatment. 

Fortunately, all of this was staged as part of Laurie Starr’s First Aid/CPR Wilderness Training class through her company StarrCPR, she is offering to companies and others who work in the forest.  The setting was truly an epic redwood forest of the kind Paul Bunyan might be found in. But it was the city of Fort Bragg’s Otis Johnson Wilderness Park in the middle of Fort Bragg. 

Employees of the Redwood Forest Foundation/Usal Lumber Company took turns being “injured” while the rest of the 9 people on hand learned from Starr what to do when someone breaks their leg, or hits their head and a plethora of other injuries that can be much more life-threatening when suffered in our remote forests and beaches. 

This is not a story just about a class. This is about surviving a world that cares more about AI than us. Robots wont help you survive in the outdoors. But we can help each other. We at Mendocinocoast.news think learning these skills is more crucial than ever right now. The world is changing fast for the worst. We need to be able to grow our own food, support each other and very importantly, survive amidst a spectacularly beautiful wilderness that can also kill you.  Laurie Starr’s CPR classes, especially those focused in the wilderness, are what you need. I’m sad to say many CPR classes are a scam. There are a lot of things that require CPR of their employees from Parents and Friends to schools to medical facilties.  Unfortunately, this leads to some insipid non profit getting a grant to do it  “quick and dirty.”  Its very common. I have done CPR twice in my life, not for about 3 years, but when pumping the chest of an actual person, I was glad I had taken the class seriously, at least once.  

Laurie Starr’s classes are very serious CPR, the kind you want to have taken when something actually happens, not when checking some box in some fakeo CPR class that only helps you keep your job.

Check out our photo story on what we saw and how First Aid and CPR done right works. There are other good practitioners, but on the other hand, if your only First Aid training is one of those quickie classes, its worth coming along with our photos, videos and fun practice session. 

Most people who died by choking or bleeding to death could have been saved by people trained in first aid, studies have shown. Many drowning victims could be saved also. Giving CPR greatly increases the chances of a person surviving a heart event. Everything in survival is about how fast bleeding is stopped, or people otherwise stablized by trained bystanders, until the ambulance or helicopter gets there.

So let’s go back to Otis Johnson Park and see what is going on.

While Stevens lay on the ground, acting confused, Starr worked through just how to check him for spinal injuries, head injuries and everybody took turns holding his head, while others learned how to move the 6-6 woodsman’s body for safer breathing and onto an impromptu stretcher. 

Then she had everyone go to their truck (these guys and gals all have trucks of course) and find equipment that could be used to safely used to transport Stevens.  Made me think about packing better when I take one of my daily beach trips or one of my occasional deep dives into the forest .

 Surprisingly, none of the pickem’ up truck cowboys and cowgirls had a tarp, which would have been an excellent help.  Im packing one under the blanket the dogs sleep on from now on.

The winner was a folding aluminum-steel ATV loader  in the truckbed  of ?/// . The team brought that item down to where Stephens lay. And folded it in half. It looked ample to fit the big guy on that way, but Starr told them to fold it one more time. Now it looked much to narrow.  I have actually been in on this one for the hospital, loading a person onto a gurney that looks too narrow. The laws of physics and good tie downs and carry practices, with people on both sides, making it safer and the patient is kept snug, very important to do with an injured person. Starr pionted out that the wider gurney would allow him to move too much and would be hard to get around forest obstacles.  

They got more coaching from Starr and Stephens after they managed to get Stevens back to the Otis Johnson Parking lot. Doing this made all of us think about what we would carry in our cars.  I went to work at the hospital that day and I was only able to get in about 2 hours of the intense training. I thought all day about what stuff I carry with me on the beach.  Stevens said at the start of the exercise, which combined laughs with learning at times, that he always figured if a man his size got hurt way out somewhere, they would just shoot him, lol. As about the only guy around bigger than Mike himself, I have thought the same myself, like who could possibly carry me?  The training gave me a broader view of what can be done even without a trained professional like Starr being on hand. I include some videos of the part that I watched. I wish I could have stayed and filmed the broken leg parts and more.  I will rewatch those a few times and if something ever happens, I think I could provide direction to regular-sized people and maybe not need shooting. 

Stephens who has taken similar trainings over the years, said this one was great. It brought the entire team together and gave him needed info, such as that CPR no longer involves giving rescue breaths, or “mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.” 

“Before it was chest compression and rescue breaths. Now it is just continuous chest compressions, “Stephens said.. 

“So that was something new to learn and shows why it’s important to keep up on the training. Also, keeping up on the training means it’s somewhere in your memory so if an emergency happen,s you aren’t freaking out going “oh no what do I do?” I’ve never had to be rescued but in the past I’ve had to rescue employees from the field. I always emphasize going over safety and proper precautions to avoid accidents and injuries in the field. Prevention can go a long way to keeping you safe in the field.”  Studies have shown that continuous chest compressions are the best way for a CPR practitioner to bring back an unresponsive person, while the ambulance crew is on the way.

Starr is a fire captain with the Albion Fire Department and a “tech” in the Adventist Health Mendocino Coast Hospital, where I work as a security professional. Tech’s used to be called “orderlies”  I feel both these names are somewhat insulting understatements to the tremendous role they place in medicine.  In an era when garbage collectors get renamed “sanitaton engineers” couldnt we come up with a better name than orderly or “tech” . Tech sounds to me like they can fix my computer, not save my life.  How about “Nursing Facilitators” or “Physician’s Liasons” or “Patient Liasons”.

Chris Watkins, who provides public experiences for RFFI, meaning he takes people out into their massive forest that composes much of the north end of Mendocino County, was glad to get training from a highly qualified person.

“I think the class was great! It was very hands-on. Now I feel more confident in knowing how to use the first aid kit I carry. Also we learned to use the items around us in nature that could be used for self rescue or helping someone else with an injury or reaction to the elements such as bee stings, burns etc. We trained in real world situations that those of us on the Coast face all the time.. Laurie is very knowledgeable and answered tons of questions. We even carried “Big Mike” out of the woods to safety.”

Starr’s upcoming schedule of classes includes one at the Caspar COmmunity Center: Sunday, 2/8/26, 9am -2pm Sunday, 5/3/25, 9am -3pm Sunday, 9/20/26, 9am -3pm Sunday, 12/13/26, 9am -3pm I often have community courses at the Mendocino County Park and Rec District Studio at 579 N. Franklin, near Safeway. Folks can keep an eye out for info on that on my social media accounts. and on othe local event related pages.

Check out Starr CPR’s website. Starrcpr

Alomgside getting certified in CPR/AED use, this course wsa based on knowing how to do group and iindividual first aid/self rescue related tasks. I think we all had fun out there, and they were very creative in their “”broken” arms, leg, etc.

Just when we were about to publish this story, Starr published a statement on her Facebook feed. about cuts happening to her position at the hospital.

“With Federal budget cuts to rural hospitals, my day time position at the ER will not longer exist. While there are a cpl night positions open, with everyone applying for the same spots fighting to stay employed, Not a good time to put all my eggs in one basket.

I ask my community for suggestions on employment opportunities that could either hold me over, or even be a whole new career path. Yes, I am looking at craigslist, indeed, etc. BUT just in case someone knows of a potential opportunity that hasn’t made it to mainstream classifieds, etc, I would love to know! All ideas are welcome, thank you in advance for taking the time to read this.”

This post surprised me  The article is about this training, but our hospital and the work of people like Laurie is needed critically right now in the community, more so than wilderness training.  This article won’t go into detail about the awful slicing of all the services we pay taxes to by the Trump administration, other than to stay the fact it is all being done for one reason- to give tax cuts to people who don’t need them.  

All of it is good reason for you to put down the social media, go outside, think, learn and get involved.