[Jagaang]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juliane_Koepcke

I've never heard of this, and it sounds dangerous and last resort-ish.

She used gasoline to drive the maggots out of open wounds.

What's the history and legitimacy of this? My instinct is that putting gasoline on an open wound would be a danger in and of itself.

 

[Boost Addicted]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juliane_Koepcke

I've never heard of this, and it sounds dangerous and last resort-ish.

She used gasoline to drive the maggots out of open wounds.

What's the history and legitimacy of this? My instinct is that putting gasoline on an open wound would be a danger in and of itself.

Not sure about gasoline, but I know diesel fuel is loaded with bacteria... If you get diesel into a wound, you can easily die.

My shop teacher in college couldn't bend his index finger because he got diesel in a cut and left it untreated... Whatever bug he got ate through his tendon.

My advice is to not do it...

 

[Jojo]

Maggots only eat dead flesh. Dead flesh left on a living body breeds gangrene.
Leave the maggots - forget the gasoline.

 

[Adam]

She also floated down a river for several days which is also something you probably shouldn't do in a survival situation. But between the two I would probably float the river before dumping a carcinogenic irritant on an open wound.

 

[searching4itnc]

Some old timers around here swear if you ever "need" to pull a tooth yourself, to soak a q-tip in gasoline and then place it on the exposed or broken tooth. It kills the root and makes the tooth easier to pull. I'm suffering from a broken tooth right now, but I think I'll wait to see what the dentist can offer!

 

[Jojo]

Maggots only eat dead flesh. Dead flesh left on a living body breeds gangrene.
Leave the maggots - forget the gasoline.

I didn't have time earlier but wanted to come back and leave a source - I wasn't kidding about the maggots. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maggot_therapy

 

[Adam]

I didn't have time earlier but wanted to come back and leave a source - I wasn't kidding about the maggots. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maggot_therapy

Maggots are only recommended for medical settings. Under wild conditions they run risk of causing secondary infection and also eating live flesh. They are great when used properly for a short period of time on a necrotic wound, but I wouldn't personally recommend using them in the wild.

as a last ditch effort or a survival effort it is worth a go I suppose. In that case you want to keep them in there only the first week, after that a reduction of healing has shown in lab study results and predation on living tissue starts to occur.

I love Wikipedia, but sometimes people piece meal lines from technical journals they cite on the pages, whether accidentally or intentionally.

 

[rover]

I would use something sterile like alcohol.
They probably didn't know about Benzene poisoning back then.
Diesel and water make bacteria pretty quick but working with fuel oils all my life, I have never heard of the bacteria hurting people.
But know people that went crazy from long time exposure to fuel oils on the skin.