Disagree on the satphone being at the bottom of a list. This depends on where you are. I can think of many places without wifi and internet cafes and cell phones, most of which are travelled by the likes of HUBB types looking for the road/trail untravelled. Check where you are going to see if there will be 100% mobile coverage before finding out there isn't.
If you have a crash in the middle of no-where (ie no cell phone) and have a bone sticking out your leg, well I would certainly pay $400 to get myself out of that situation. As this is the cost of renting a sat phone for a few months, I've taken one in the past. It would suck to know that all around me were electrical signals yet I was too cheap to take the technology on the trip to use them.
And I would call my parents first, then someone with medical advice, then my insurance company.
There seems to be this bravado of not taking GPS and Satphones on travels, which for me makes no sense if they are readily available and cheap. You don't have to use them, but just having them in case is surely a sound idea. My 2 cents.
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