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If you come across a person who appears to have a broken leg and is bleeding — what do you do first? What if you have no signal on your phone or you are far from professional medical help? How do you treat this person without causing further injury to their neck or back?

Thanks to a 20-hour wilderness first aid class, 15 Prince Edward County citizens now know the answers to these and more emergency first aid questions. The course, offered by the Charlottesville-based MEDIC SOLO Disaster + Wilderness Medical School, covered a range of issues during the course at Longwood University on Feb. 4 and 5.

The course covered first aid to people with burns, frostbite, broken limbs, possible skull or spinal injuries, bleeding, breathing difficulties, and more.

“Many of the attendees said they live in the country where they are more than 10 to 20 minutes away from an ambulance showing up,” said Mateo Rosefsky, the course’s instructor. Rosefsky, who is a certified Wilderness EMT and Geo Medic has taught more than 5,000 people these critical skills.

“We learned how to treat accident victims during the critical time waiting for an ambulance to arrive,” said one attendee as she made a splint on a “broken” leg of a classmate.

Attendees included college students, youth group leaders, teachers, hunters, and retirees. One couple leads a lot of outdoor adventures for their family and a youth group.

The course will be held again next February in Farmville, and is offered in other locations throughout Virginia, including Richmond Feb. 25-26, Charlottesville April 15-16, and more. Learn more at www.solowfa.com.