📘 Guides › 🩹 Health & medicine · 🆘 Emergency · 📇 Index A–Z
Offline medical reference for when doctors, pharmacies and hospitals can't be reached. PDFs open in Edge or any web browser; .zim archives open in Kiwix (Kiwix-Reader\). On a laptop, the Library Assistant (AI-Offline\Library-Assistant\START-LIBRARY-ASSISTANT.bat) searches all of it at once.
| Folder | Contents |
|---|---|
Where There Is No Doctor\ |
Start here. Hesperian's classic village health care handbook (2025 printing), chapter by chapter — including the Green Pages on medicines: uses, doses and warnings |
Where Women Have No Doctor\ |
Women's health: pregnancy, birth, family planning, common problems |
A Book for Midwives\ |
Pregnancy, labor, birth and newborn care, step by step |
Manuals-PDF\ |
Ship's Medicine Chest and Medical Aid at Sea (care with no doctor aboard), MSF Clinical Guidelines (diagnosis and treatment with doses), Emergency War Surgery (trauma, wounds, burns), Special Forces Medical Handbook, Where There Is No Dentist |
Medicines\ |
Drug references: WHO Model Formulary (adults) and for Children, MSF Essential Drugs, WHO essential-medicines lists, FDA notes on expired medicines and disposal |
Medicinal-Plants\ |
WHO evidence monographs on medicinal plants, native plant uses of northern California (Chesnut 1902), USDA poisonous-plant guide |
Pill-Identifier\ |
PILL-IDENTIFIER.html — identify a loose pill by the code printed on it (about 32,000 US pills) |
WikiMed\ (Kiwix) |
Offline medical Wikipedia with images — an article for almost every disease, drug and procedure |
zimgit-medicine\ (Kiwix) |
Curated offline first-aid and medical guide |
Also: the Army first-aid and survival manuals in Manuals\ArmyFieldManuals\, and the animal health books in Southern-Oregon\Animals\.
Which book for which problem (WTND = Where There Is No Doctor):
| Problem | Open |
|---|---|
| Bleeding, wounds, burns, broken bones, heat stroke | Injuries & Illness guide; WTND — First aid |
| Rattlesnake bite | Snakebite CPG 81 (2026) — no band, cutting, suction or ice; Northern Pacific rattlesnake |
| Diarrhea, dehydration, common illness | WTND ch. 13 |
| Fever, infection — which treatment | MSF Clinical Guidelines |
| Gunshot, crush injury, major trauma | Emergency War Surgery |
| Toothache, abscess | Where There Is No Dentist, p. 103 |
| Pregnancy and birth | A Book for Midwives — labor |
| Fear, grief, depression | Where Women Have No Doctor ch. 27 |
📚 Go deeper: WTND index — find any illness by name (printed page numbers); Ship's Medicine Chest — caring for a patient for days with no doctor.
When someone is hurt, check in this order and act on the first problem you find (FM 4-25.11, p. 18–19; the newer Army order is MARCH — ATP 4-02.11, p. 53):
There is no 24-hour ER in the Illinois Valley — see Local contacts in the Illinois Valley guide.
📚 Go deeper: FM 4-25.11 First Aid — the full casualty check; WTND — bleeding — pressure points, closing cuts.
1. Identify it. US pills must carry an imprint code. Open Pill-Identifier\PILL-IDENTIFIER.html, type the code, then check that the color, shape and size also match — the same code can be two different drugs (e.g. "I2" is ibuprofen 200 mg or amitriptyline 25 mg depending on size; "N 4" is nitroglycerin or a diet pill). No code at all = a supplement, a foreign or compounded product, or an illegal pill.
2. Never trust street pills. Pills that didn't come from a pharmacy can be counterfeits pressed with fentanyl — fake blue "M30" oxycodone, Xanax and Adderall are common, and many contain a deadly dose.
3. Look it up before giving it. In the WHO Model Formulary or MSF Essential Drugs (Medicines\), read what it treats, the dose, who must not take it, and interactions. For children, use the WHO Formulary for Children — children's doses go by weight. Give the right dose, no more and no less; finish every antibiotic course; antibiotics do nothing for colds (WTND, p. 56).
4. Expired medicines. Most tablets and capsules kept sealed, cool and dry lose potency slowly — military testing extended most stockpiled lots by years (88% of 3,005 lots, on average by 66 months), and some drugs kept 90% strength decades past their date (Zilker 2019, p. 54–55). That was warehouse storage, and inhalers and epinephrine often failed. But:
5. The biggest dangers
6. Measure it right (WTND ch. 8): 1 g = 1,000 mg · 1 mg = 1,000 mcg · 1 grain = 65 mg · 1 teaspoon = 5 ml · 1 tablespoon = 15 ml. Kitchen spoons vary — mark one at 5 ml measured with a syringe (WTND p. 61; cutting tablets: p. 60). Check the mg on the label: strengths differ. Never give medicine by mouth to someone asleep, unconscious or having a seizure (p. 62).
7. Getting rid of medicines — mix with coffee grounds or cat litter and seal; flush only what the FDA lists, like fentanyl patches — deadly to children even after use (FDA; FDA decision flowchart).
Stock up now: ask your doctor about extra supplies of the medicines your household depends on, and keep an emergency kit (wound care, pain/fever medicine, antihistamines, oral rehydration salts, naloxone).
📚 Go deeper: WTND Green Pages — uses, doses and warnings for each medicine; MSF Essential Drugs, p. 646 — storage, spoilage and expiry; Zilker 2019 — what testing shows about old medicines.
Most children who die of diarrhea die of dehydration. Signs: thirst, little or dark urine, dry mouth, sunken tearless eyes, skin that stays up when pinched (the pinch test, WTND p. 151). Start the drink at the first watery stools (WTND, p. 151–152).
Rehydration Drink (drawn step by step, Hesperian Ch 5, p. 53; Oral rehydration): in 1 liter of clean water, stir ½ level teaspoon of salt and 8 level teaspoons of sugar. Taste before adding the sugar: it must be less salty than tears.
📚 Go deeper: WTND, p. 152 — the sugar and cereal recipes, with pictures; MSF Clinical Guidelines — severe diarrhea and cholera.
📷 Not sure what it is? Photograph it with the plant and mushroom identifier (🔧 Tools tab). It suggests names and flags poisonous groups, but it's often wrong: confirm every feature here before you eat or use anything.
Signs a home remedy probably doesn't work: many different "cures" for one illness, disgusting remedies, and anything using animal or human waste — that causes infections (WTND, p. 10–11).
Deadly look-alike: foxglove leaves have been mistaken for comfrey (foxglove photos, WSU p. 28), with fatal "comfrey tea" poisonings — and comfrey itself can harm the liver (FDA Bad Bug Book, p. 243). If in doubt, don't — and call the Poison Center.
📚 Go deeper: WHO Monographs Vol 1 — evidence plant by plant (Vols 1–4); WSU Poisonous Plants of the PNW, p. 28 — foxglove and other local poisons.
| What you see | What to do |
|---|---|
| Rash, itching, swelling or wheezing after a medicine | Stop it for good; epinephrine if severe (Green Pages); treat for shock |
| Antibiotic not helping after a day or two | Wrong illness, dose or medicine? Recheck (WTND, p. 57) |
| A child got into medicines | Poison Center 1-800-222-1222 (Poison control center) |
📚 Go deeper: WTND — poisoning — common poisons and what to do; WTND — allergic reactions, p. 166 — mild to severe; WHO Model Formulary — side effects and interactions, drug by drug.
On a laptop, use the Library Assistant (searches everything, answers with sources), or GPT4All (AI-Offline\DocReader-GPT4All\) with the medical folders added as a collection. Read the page it cites before acting.
📚 Go deeper: How to run the offline AI — setup; WTND vocabulary — medical words explained.
This is reference information, not a substitute for a doctor. Books and offline AIs can be wrong or out of date. Get professional help whenever it's possible; use this when it isn't, and double-check anything critical against more than one source.
Hesperian and MSF books are free for personal use; ask the publishers before giving copies to others.
📚 Go deeper: WTND — serious illnesses — signs that need more than home care; WTND — signs of dangerous illness, p. 42 — when to look for medical help.
Look before you try it. 🖼️ = drawings in the books on this drive; 📷 = photos in the offline Wikipedia. Many more first-aid pictures are in the Injuries & Illness guide.
The first few minutes
Medicines
Dehydration and plants