like it or not the question of liability raises its ugly head whenever you offer advice or assistance to someone. The owner of this group has a statement limiting his liability should you try something you read about on this group and are injured. I know a medical doctor who was sued by someone that he saved who had fallen in the back country. The individual was unconscious, had a broken leg and head injuries, and could not give his permission for the doctor to help him. So far all of the first aid information we're talking about is proactive and assumes that every one will want help and will be thankful afterwards, not that someone will sue you for helping them, say for instance your gauze was not sterile and they got an infection, or whatever, this is a litigious society.

It has been brought to my attention that a release form limiting ones liability and giving permission for you to help them, (and probably a release also from any HIPA clauses) just might be a good idea. Good Samaritan laws aside, each state is different and any one or their family can sue you for anything. I don't think this should be taken lightly.

What if you give up on resuscitating someone, or you go for help and give the incorrect GPS coordinates to the SR guys, or that you were not proactive enough in obtaining help, like you camped at dark rather than proceeding on to find a ranger, or that you didn't do everything that you could, like wrapping the person in your own sleeping bag because they were a day hiker and so they died of hypothermia?

We also had a recent case in Oregon of Christian Scientists parents being found guilty of manslaughter for not taking their child to a doctor. The subject of sterility is serious as is the question of a face condom. If you move someone and they are crippled for life you have to prove to a jury, at your expense, that you thought you were doing it for their own good, AND that any reasonable person would have thought the same thing, and then hope the jury holds you harmless, I don't know about you but I don't want my future in the hands of a jury.

I think maybe everyone should carry a medical/HIPA release form if they intend to try to help an injured person; they should be included if first aid kits.
Jim