On the evening of June 13th, a peaceful camping trip took a dire turn for Al Jean Louis. It was the second day of a men’s church camping trip, and everything was going well. In fact, several would later describe their surroundings as picture perfect. Al and several of his friends were whittling near the campfire when Al decided to cut towards himself in order to get more leverage on a difficult section. The problem began when his knife skipped and bit deep into his arm. Bright red blood spurt out of his arm in time with his heartbeat, and when his friends later recalled it, they said it was the worst, and bloodiest, injury most of them had ever seen. 

When he tells his friends that he cut himself real bad, they instantly leapt into action. Reg Sachs initially dresses the wound with gauze while Andy Norgaard retrieves his MyFAK Pro. When Andy returns, he assesses the initial dressing and decides it needs to be redone. Using BleedStop and QuikClot to control the bleeding and an Emergency Pressure Bandage to hold pressure on the wound, the men immediately knew they needed to get Al to a hospital.

Their initial plan had been to paddle their canoe across the lake, hike a mile to their cars, and drive to the hospital. However, they had to reassess when halfway across Al complained about the pressure on his arm. Between that and the blood beginning to seep out from the dressing, they decided to stop at the second camp where the rest of their group had stayed.

In the frenzy, Andy had forgotten his first aid kit at the campsite. Thankfully, Andy had previously encouraged Nathan Bucher, a senior pastor at their church, to also buy a MyFAK Pro, and he had his kit on site. After reassessing the wound, they decided to use ZZIPS to help hold the wound closed and applied fresh BleedStop, QuikClot, and EPBs to the wound.

It was while the others were figuring out how to redress the wound that Mike Grabber looked at the other’s original plan to drive Al to the hospital and scrapped it. Too many things could go wrong between the lake, the hike, and the four hour drive to the hospital, and none of them wanted to risk their friend’s life. So, he made the decision to call emergency services, who made preparations to send a helicopter to airlift Al to the nearest hospital. 

When the original group packs into the canoe again, they paddle frantically to get to where the helicopter was set to meet them, leaving their friends behind to pray for Al’s safety. Once they hit land, they quickly hiked Al up to the landing point, and Andy raced to where the cars were parked so he could drive his van over, hoping to provide Al with shelter until evac arrived.

Somewhere between ninety minutes and two hours later, Al was safely loaded into the helicopter by first responders. Forty minutes later, the helicopter landed at St. John’s Hospital and Al was rushed to the emergency room. Four hours later, his friends arrived at the hospital, eager to check on Al’s condition. Although he was kept overnight, he is now safely home with his family and has healed up nicely. 

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