Brian and I got to the beach early, around 9:30 or so, to check things out. Forrest and some friends of his were there, as well as several groups of local people with bonfires, tents, etc. I'm sure things quickly got interesting for them... The fog was in, and was so thick you couldn't see the moon at times, by FMRs have gone on in more inclement conditions, so we left the beach for a while, got in touch with Malachi, and told him it was a "GO."

We heard from Malachi that the music was supposed to arrive around 1 or so, but people were getting more and more annoyed as time went on, although they were understanding. I also noticed quite a few non-ravers there, as well as a LOT more alcohol than at either of the previous raves at Bonny Doon. (typical raver comments: When's the music starting, who's spinning, etc.; an actual comment from a non-raver: Dude, I think we can score some acid).

About the time the music was starting, someone came up to me and said that there was a guy dancing naked in one of the fires. I went over, and saw that people had finally subdued him. Will Penna, non-sfraver Eric Lee and several others had covered the guy with a blanket and were trying to talk him down from what was apparently a bad reaction to some substance, the identity of which was never ascertained.

From what I later found out, the guy (whose name we found out was Jason) had stripped off most of his clothes (he was down to nothing but a tee-shirt by the time I got to him) and was jumping in and out of a couple of campfires and had also jumped into the ocean (thanks to a friend of Will Penna's for pulling him out). He sustained some burns in the process, the seriousness of which we were not to find out until later.

Eric, Will, a friend of Malachi's name Jesse, several other people and I spent the next hour or two to try to talk him down from whatever "up" he was on. We really weren't qualified to diagnose his burns, so we just sorta assumed they weren't bad, and that it was more important to just keep him warm and safe. Someone had a blanket on him, and I scrounged up a sleeping bag. Unfortunately, he wasn't the most cooperative sort at the time. He would get out of the bag, complain he was cold, get back in, and then get really paranoid and hop back out. He also mumbled on and off about Jesus and about fires, but we eventually got his name and tried to get the DJs to stop the music temporarily (it had barely started by the time this entire situation happened) and ask for his sister. They refused, claiming that it was impossible for them (see my gripes post for further details).

After a while, Jason got up and started walk er... staggering towards one of the fires, calling everyone around him assholes, and just being seriously paranoid. Then, in a sudden fit of lucidity, he grabbed at a guy who was passing by and asked him for help. Turns out this guy was an off-duty naval medical technician, who immediately diagnosed the burns as 3rd-degree, in other words, SERIOUS.

Well, I scrounged up about 2-3 big guys, and then the six of us (me, Jesse, the naval guy (whose name I never got), a friend of Will Penna's, and one or two other guys) carried Jason off the beach and down to to parking lot. Once he was down on the highway (not the most fun experience - he was heavy, going up that sandy slope), I ran off to try to flag down a highway patrolman or state trooper or something in order to get the paramedics. Fortunately, one Santa Cruz County sheriff was at the head of Bonny Doon, ticketing all of the most poorly cars.

[me] Officer, we need to call the paramedics - someone fell into a campfire and has 3rd degree burns all over his hands and feet. We have him at the north end of the parking lot.

[him] Grrr... Is this what they call a rave?

[me] (thinking quickly) Uh, I really don't know - all I heard was that there was going to be dancing and music at Bonny Doon, so I went. Look, we really need the paramedics.

[him] No one knows ANYTHING around here, do they. Where are you from.

[me] Uh, San Jose (about 5 years ago).

[him] That's where everyone seems to be from. And they'll probably leave the beach an utter mess.

He seemed VERY displeased at the situation, but more concerned with punk kids from San Jose messing up his beach than the burn victim, but he reassured me that the paramedics would be on their way. After about 5-10 minutes, some volunteer paramedics from Davenport came, as well as two more cars of Santa Cruz PD. The identified himself as a naval med technician to the paramedics and then briefed them on the situation.

Soon, everyone that had carried Jason from the beach other than Jesse and myself left, leaving Jason in the hands of the paramedics. They cleaned his wounds off and wrapped them in sterile solution. Jason, when asked, told them that he'd been drinking a little bit, I honestly don't believe him, and I don't think the para's did, either. There ensued a short debate by the medical experts as whether to carry Jason by ambulance to Dominican Hospital (which was about 12 miles away) or to evacuate him by helicopter to Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, which has a special burn clinic. Finally, they decided that the chopper would take too long, so they packed him away into an ambulance and headed off to Dominican. At this point, Jesse and I went back to the beach, he to get his car keys, me to get some ID in case they needed it at the hospital.

Brian writes:
He did say he was candyflipping

No! That's not true! Someone was speculating that that was the case, but that was never confirmed. He never told anyone what he was on, and I was with him almost nonstop from the time he was pulled out of the fire until the ambulance left.

When we got back to the parking lot, the ambulance had come back, and they'd called in the chopper. They were about to set up an LZ right in the middle of Highway 1, but the pilot came in to about 2 miles away and then decided that the fog was coming back in too quickly, so he left. The ambulance then headed off to Dominican.

Jesse and I went to the hospital, where we found Jason in the emergency room, his hands and feet dipped in saline. The doctors told us that he'd be all right. We left after we were sure that they had his name and address, and we left to find his sister.

Unfortunately, we never did find the sister. I looked around for about an hour or so, again tried to get the DJs to page her, and then gave up and went to sleep. I woke up to the sounds beautiful sounds of techno in the sunlight, and the next day was just gorgeous. I danced for about a half hour or so and then left to try to find Jason's sister. Brian FINALLY convinced to DJs to get a message out over the speakers, but no one showed up. Presumably, she'd already left, assuming that Jason had gone home with someone else. They DID have his name and address at the hospital, though, so they presumably can get in touch with his parents.

Brian and I left around 12:30 or so, each carrying out a bag of trash, and the beach was just immaculate by then, probably cleaner than it was when we got there.

few observations.

o There were a lot more non-ravers than I'd seen at Bonny Doon before, but they all seemed to like it. Some I talked to seemed shocked that the music was starting that late, but I'm sure they enjoyed it. One group had been camping on the beach since noon Saturday to celebrate one woman's birthday. I'm sure they got an interesting surprise gift from us...

o I also noticed a lot more alcohol than at other raves, which had me worried for a while. Fortunately, it never really got out of hand, and all the cans and bottles were cleaned up by the time we left.

o I wish that Malachi would have had someone at the beach a little earlier. We were there to stay by 11:45 or so, but there were already about a hundred people there. By the time he showed up with the sound system around 2:15, there were AT LEAST 300 people. Had Brian and I not been there directing traffic, the entire event would probably been busted up because of the police noticing all of the cars.

o The crowd was HUGE - the largest ever at an FMR, according to Malachi. Streams of cars from both directions were coming by and heading up for the rave. For a while, two out of three cars on Highway 1 pulling up Bonny Doon road. Geoff White counted 450 cars on that road, and, added to the 100 or so cars parked in the lot and on the highway, as well as in a couple of places north of the beach and in Davenport, confirms the estimates of 1200-1500 people.

o As griped before in my previous posting, I'd like to see someone with medical training at raves, as well as someone easily visible and known to have a portable phone. Had the sheriff not been there ticketing cars, I doubt we could have flagged on down, since there really weren't any to be seen the rest of the night. If not for him, we would probably have had to wait for a while for someone to get a car and drive him to the hospital ourselves.

The hospital he was taken to is called Dominican Hospital, at the Soquel Drive exit of Highway one. Special thanks have to go to Will Penna and his friend, Jesse, Eric Lee, the naval med guy and everyone else who helped and whose names I either forgot or never got in the first place.

--
I didn't see this one, but one woman earlier in the nite got a bloody nose when she was punched in the face by someone high on something. I looked for the EMT that was allegedly there then, too, but couldn't find him. She was fine after a few minutes, though, the bleeding having stopped.

-Andrei

Subject: medical emerg.
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 92 18:24:25 PDT
From: paul@cruzio.santa-cruz.ca.us (Paul Thomas)

Well, I'm approaching this subject through the back channels of direct email so as to avoid the interest of any news hungry media lurkers on the net till we can weigh in and compare notes on the subject of our 1st medical emergency. Please expand the distribution as necessary.

I'd like to start off the discussion with:

Clearly any public experiment, that these raves be, that does not make a priority of safety and service falls short of state-of-the-art in consciousness technology.

To expect concerned local officials and their tax dollars to be accountable for our medical emergencies may not be the kind of public relations program that will make us welcome in the communities that we visit.

These feelings and observations of mine are quite understated and I look forward to an appropiate forum in which to articulate myself.

-- paul@cruzio.santa-cruz.ca.us
--

Date: Sun, 11 Oct 92 19:57:07 -0700
From: Brian Behlendorf (Vitamin B) <bbehlen> Subject: Re: medical emerg.

I am in full agreement with Paul. Given that we could not have _prevented_ such a thing from happening, what _should_ we have done differently? Even the best-prepared EMT probably wouldn't have thought to bring burn towels and ointment (maybe he would..). Maybe promoters should _hire_ an EMT, who will come with a FULL setup and be wearing something obvious to identify him? How much would that cost? The only problem I see with what happened last night was that his burns weren't treated immediately, but I think given the circumstances the people involved performed superiorly. Why the officials deemed it appropriate to send two more cruisers and three fire trucks in addition to the ambulance is beyond me.

Brian

From: geoffw%nexsys@igc.apc.org (Geoff White)
Subject: Re: fwd: medical emerg.

Well, there IS a solution, the Red Cross offers first aid courses at a varity of levels for very little money.

The courses Offered which are related to Us are:

STANDARD FIRST AID
This course includes Adult CPR skills and first aid skills including the Secondary Survey, First Aid for Bleeding, Shock, Burns, Diabetic Emergencies and more. Upon successful completion the student will receive an Adult CPR and a Standard First Aid certificate. (Meets most OSHA requirements for first aid training)
Time: 9 hours Fee: $35.00

STANDARD FIRST AID PROGRESSION COURSE
This course is for individuals who hold a current Adult CPR certificate or another American Red Cross or American Heart Association Certificate that includes Adult CPR. This course is essentially the second-half of the Standard First Aid course.
Time: 5 hours Fee: $24.00

CPR: BASIC LIFE SUPPORT FOR THE PROFESSIONAL RESCUER
This is the course for anyone who has a duty to respond! It includes the skills taught in Community CPR and teaches you how to perform 2-Rescuer CPR, how to use the pocket resuscitation mask and airway management techniques (i.e. Mounth-to-Nose, Modified Jaw Thrust.)
Time:12 hours Fee: $45.00

COMMUNITY CPR
Community CPR instruction is thhe program that teaches skills in rescue breathing, first aid for choking and CPR for adults, children and infants. This is a nine-hour course and you must attend all sessions in order to receive certification.
Time: 9 hours Fee: $35.00

ADVANCED FIRST AID/ ADVANCED WILDERNESS FIRST AID
For those who have a special interest in first aid, (e.g., you want to become an EMT, you are part of an emergency response team at work) This is a 60-hour, intensive, hands-on course. The Wilderness First Aid course emphasizes emergenciies that occur while in the wilderness and utilizes materials thatt are accessible to hikers,, campers and backpackers.
Time: 60 hours Fee: $65.00

Call your local red cross chapter for a schedule of dates and times. I myself am signed up for the first two Sandard First Aid courses, after I complete these classes, I'll take BASIC LIFE SUPPORT... This will take me till the end of the year to complete. After I'm done with these, if I feel that I really want to do this, I'll take the ADVANCED course. I want to encourage as many of you out there as possible to take at least a basic CPR or STANDARD FIRST AID course. If we are going to continue to have raves in places like Bonny Dune which are remote and secluded we need to be ready for emergencies. The authorities will also look more favorably on us if they see us behaving like a community and taking some responsibility. One of the things that worries me about some (but most certainly NOT all) of the British ravers that I have encountered, is that they want to have fun and feel like they have a right to come to a site and have a rave, they get riled at the authorities for shutting them down, but they don't want to clean up after themselves or take precautions to assure that people can be safe at a rave. I hope this incident at Bonny Dune, drives home my point that we need to be prepared to keep people safe if we want the scene to grow.

Maybe as an incentive, ravers who have RED Cross First aid traing can get a discount of of the price and EMTs, MDs or others with verifiable First Aid credentials could be admitted for free. This cost the promoters almost Nothing, what they get is immediate recognition of who has Emergency Training they know exactly how many of these people they have on site and they get coverage for free. What they may need to invest in is a complete first aid kit which most likely cost about $200.

Just an update,

If you take CPR:BASIC LIFE SUPPORT...
followed by the STANDARD FIRST AID PROGRESSION...

Then you have a full compliment of life saving skills.

STANDARD FIRST AID is a good ONE COURSE solution in that you learn ADULT CPR and basic first aid.

IF you already know CPR take STANDARD FIRST AID PROGRESSION.

CPR:BLS teaches you how to do 2-person CPR and CPR on infants and children.

Subject: Re: Medical gripes (was Re: medical emerg.)
From: "Mr Black"

just out of curiosity...

After he was hauled away to the hospital, Jesse (one of Malachi's friends) and I went to the hospital to see how he was doing. He was tired and scared, but in reasonably decent shape.

(1) when Andrei/Jesse visited Jason in the hospital, was he ok (down), or was he still having religious delusions?

(2) did anyone find out whether he had taken anything, or was he just psycho to begin with.

FYI, the reason why he had burns on him was because he kept on diving into fires so he could "feel the fire of jesus"; "feel the power of jesus"; "feel fire of jesus flow through me" ... fortunately there were people around the fires that kept on pulling him out, and people trying to keep him away from the fires too.

(a) Yes, have some sort of EMT person on hand if at all possible. I know Doc comes to a lot of raves, but realistically we should have at least a first-aid kit or something at EVERY rave.
(b) some way of coordinating in case of emergencies such as this.

And perphaps have some thorazine or xanax on hand ...

Better yet, get the word out to all the "kids" -- Acid is a way fucking serious drug, and I'm sick and tired of people downing it like candy; treating with the same seriousness as drinking a few beers, or smoking a reefer. And if you have a friend who is "on edge" or is going through hard times, don't let him/her take it as an "escape" -- it'll usually plunge you smack dab in the middle of your problems with no possibility of escape.

This comes from the experience of knowing more than three people who wigged out on acid in college and had to be straighjacketed and dragged away by men in white coats... not a pretty sight. (Only one turned out "ok" after a week of mental dissociation in a psychiatric institute, one was in a mental institution for about 6 mos and is now on lithium for the rest of his life, and one later attempted suicide, succeeding on his second attempt...).

From: Brian Behlendorf (Vitamin B) <bbehlen>
Subject: Re: Medical gripes (was Re: medical emerg.)

He did say he was candyflipping (though I think he told the cops he "just had a bit to drink", and the EMT's didn't ask him. I think they know and have dealt with psychedelic drugs enough down there in SC that they know when someone is dosed and how to deal with them. I did notice them trying to keep the cops away from him, probably to alleviate him wigging out of nervousness.)

One of us should call the hospital tonight/tomorrow. Which one was it, Andrei?

Brian

From: mcg@netcom.com (MykL G)
Subject: Re: Medical gripes (was Re: medical emerg.)

Additionally, the people in charge of the sound were very reluctant to get any word out over the speakers at all. I tried once around 4:30, and then again around 5:30 to get them to ask for Jason's sister, so we could let her know that her brother was in the hospital. They refused, however, claiming that they had no microphones. I explained that you COULD do it by speaking into the headphones, but they refused, claiming that it was still impossible.

Boy, that really sucks. How could they be so callous? Did you speak to Alan, Garth or Malachy about this? (I guess Jeno was on at the time).

--

Footnote on the Jason story: I witnessed an incident last spring at a small warehouse rave where someone freaked out and went into what appeared to be an epileptic fit. Fortunately this was in the middle of San Francisco -- the paramedics arrived in about 10 or 15 minutes and carted the guy away after strapping him into a stretcher. Lord nose how we'd handle a situation like that at a remote site, even with First Aid training. Maybe having some tranquilizers around is the answer, except how does one get a hold of these without a personal prescription?

--

By the way, did any of you guys hear about a second (more benign) incident that happened late in the morning? I was sitting on the railroad tracks with Mike, Jon, Jeff T. and co., when two guys emerged from the beach carrying this girl who was barely able to walk -- her teeth were chattering out of control. Apparently she'd had 4 E's in succession -- plus she seemed to be less than average body weight. We (mainly Anne) comforted her and fed her water -- her two friends managed to get her back to their car in the end. I also ran into someone else who claimed to have indulged at that level, with the only side-effect to needing to hug everyone in sight...

Apparently, the heroic efforts to distribute those Info-E flyers is not enough to persuade people that less is more. What to do?

- MykL G

From: geoffw@carlyle.com (Geoff White)
Subject: Re: Medical gripes (was Re: medical emerg.)

Well I had a first aid kit in my car (It's ALWAYS there) so if anyone had told me, I could have at least applied ointment. Yes as far as medical emergencies are concerned, I don't care if Garth is playing the best set he has ever played in his life and my trip is out by the fourth world orbiting proxima centauri, if someone is hurt, they need to stop the music and announce for an EMT! This is rediculous. Althouigh in all defense, I think you should have asked for a doctor or EMT and not the guys sister.

Niacin, in a reasonably large dose, is _very_ effective for terminating a bad trip. It doesn't knock you out like thorazin but it will "smooth" you out reasonably quickly. And it's available at your local health food store.

Subject: Re: FMR and a FMR casualty
X-Funny-Message-Of-Day: `Es not dead yet.
From: gwh@lurnix.com (George William Herbert)

I've got Red Cross Wilderness / Advanced First Aid certification, a kit, and will be at the next FMR if possible. BTW, putting any "burn ointment" on a burn victim, especially a dirty 3rd degree burn, is a definite nono. If you've got clean water, wash it off, but NEVER put anything but water or sterile bandages on burns 8-)

Some quick suggestions for the organizers, which I'm happy to discuss in more detail off the list:
1) Have at least one person there a designated medic. You might want to let them in free, as discussed here.
2) Make sure there's a PA system available in case an announcement has to be made. Make sure all the DJs are willing to stop for a sec in that case. If one isn't, rethink ever inviting them...
3) Have communications. Either have someone with a cellular phone there or find a ham radio type willing to show up. The communications delay of driving into town in an emergency is sometimes fatal.
4) Think about having some "security" people designated, more from the "helping ravers" viewpoint than anything else. One medic can't control someone dancing around on a bad trip hurting themselves, and you can't always count on bystanders being able to help. Besides, it looks good to cops if you have someone who's doing "security" 8-)

Having someone there with an in-car first aid kit is a good idea. Anyone who's planning on being there with one should contact the organizers or the medic when they get there so that the right people know who to ask for if it's needed.

minor note: someone earlier said that the Red Cross Wilderness advanced course was more oriented at outdoors situations than the normal advanced course areas. In reality, the wilderness course I took covered the entire normal advanced first aid course as well as wilderness situations and equipment. It's more, not different 8-)

-george william herbert

From: "Pat Dote" <Pat.Dote@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: another fmr casualty version

wait - i haven]t posted about fmr for a few days.... but now im confused.... i didn]t post because i was pretty upset and only recently sorted out the way i felt. so i]m sitting by this fire and see what seems to be a dead body lying so many feet away. i lookj closer and it just seems to be someone passed out. of course we all know its jason. so jason gets up and begins ranting. i]ve heard from someone else this is the guy who throws himself in fires. and so this bunch of x-heads sits there watching him. finally he makes a move and i get up and block him. everyone]s still sitting. my friend stands up, he doesn]t know much about the scene or the drugs so he]s waiting for me to make the next call. people are hanging mindlessly and i]m pissed off that groups as a whole have the mentality of sheep. i keep sort of shoulder checking him to a stationary position, wandering what to do. finally i ask someon - i think it well i just ask if anyone has a blanket. so people get up and someone sort of gives me one... now i]m pissed people couldn]t get it together to get this person a blanket when the problem was in earlier stages. so then i ask, i think its paul to watch him for a minute and my friend and i go gte andre who we met earlier carrying speakers. by this point i]ve competely lost touch with the group i was with, so andre and i still think its paul and eric the fashion guy are taking care of him..... i check back later, feeling guilty i didn]t stay and they tell me his name is jason, and asked me to try and find people who knew him. i didn]t, and then my ride wanted to take off. i convinced them to stay a while longer and by the time we left i saw all the emergency vehicles outside.

i]m still the crowd mostly reacted with indifference. people had been spotting him all night, and they did nothing...

also i felt very spoiled that my going out and having fun can get upwards of 30 state employees on the move at 4:00am... what a waste they could be out dealing with accidents that couldn]t have been avoided. i]m far from anti-drugs but since the time i started drinking drinking with my high-school faculty in morning before classes to the time i freaked out and escaped palo alto law enforcement in the process i focused on the environment i was toying around with. we]re not all mature enough to know how any drug will affect us on any given episode, but we should be fucking responsible enough to deal with these situations as they occur, and do our damn best not to waste other people]s time and resources on them. there are many areas that wouldn]t be able to get the paramedics and the problems would have much more servere. i]m sure we all know stories.

at this point i feel most people i]ve seen taking drugs are like kids in a candy store, flaunting their middle-class status and the safety net that implies with little or no understandiung of the shit that happens to support their leisure time. granted, we all know someone who grows their own mushrooms, whatever - but that]s not the larger issue of of the devicisveness drug industries create and the violence they]re responsible for.

yes, most drugs should be legal.... but we should do more to make sure we know how to keep what we]re doing contained and safe, and act out as a positive ritual.

fetish
love
pat