My Personal FAK and Car FAK - Criticisms and Feedback wanted :)

[absw]

I have put these together as I had no first aid kits and I thought that I should have something to keep in my car as well are one for general carry to take camping etc.

I have no first aid training other than basics that I have picked up over the years, but am going to sort that out. (Probably sign up for St John Ambulance or as a Community First Responder, maybe Urban/Lowland SAR)

I'm going with; If I have to use most of this (as its mainly trauma type stuff) I would have already called 999.

Car Kit

Shears
5 small gauze swabs
5 large gauze swabs
7 Steropore Dressings 15x9cm
Burn Gel Spray
Safety Pins
Green Safety Tape
Waterproof Tape (Not pictured)
No.1 Ambulance Dressing
No.2 Ambulance Dressing
Eye Wash Bottle
Eye Dressing
20 Assorted Plasters
Triangular Bandage
Izzy
2 Ambulance Trauma Dressings (Similar to the Izzy)
5cm Bandage
2 10cm Bandages
Box of Gloves (not in this picture)
Antibacterial Wipes (Not in this picture)


Personal Kit

Izzy
3 Steropore Dressings 15x9cm
2 Eye Wash Ampoules
5 Large Gauze Swabs
5 Small Gauze Swabs
No.1 Ambulance Dressing
No.2 Ambulance Dressing
5cm Bandage
3 pairs of Gloves
2 Burn Gel Sachets
20 Assorted Plasters
Safety Pins


Both kits packed up

I'm going to put the car one in the glovebox, with the gloves/wipes in the passenger side underseat storage tray. Other kit will live in my day bag.


Criticisms and Feedback please.

 

[Wayne]

I would add a Sam Splint to the car kit and some steri strips to the personal kit.

Also might be a plan to pack a couple of face shields in there too.

 

[absw]

Cool, I will get those when I get paid again. =]

I have got a couple of face shields, but I am not trained in resuscitation, so don't want to add them to the kit until I am.

 

[BrianM]

Splints: If they are in your car kit, it normally follows that an ambulance can get to the scene quickly - leave it to the crew. If you are not trained in pre-hospital fracture treament (a) it is very difficult without muscle relaxants and powerful analgesics and (b) you can cause the casulaty a lot of pain, distress and damage, and accelerate the onset of shock. Just steady the injury and support it gently to prevent movement.

Steristrips: These can leave a casualty with a nasty puckered scar if you apply them without the proper training. Use an ordinary dressing or plaster.

Face shields: Nothing wrong with putting them in the kit - they could be used by someone else who is trained in resuscitation. However don't let using them them delay resus! The alternative is not to do the breathing, but do continuous chest compressions - almost as good in most circumstances.

The gloves look like latex (and I think it says so on the box in one picture). Their use is rapidly being discontinued because of increasing numbers of people with severe latex allergy. Use nitrile instead - but too late with the kit you have now got, it's already been contaminated.

 

[DavidBFPO]

hello, Similar personal FAK & vehicle FAK only difference I have Gregson FAK (Bright Yellow) as well as a Webtex pack (cammo)
which has a 'firefly' fob affixed which glows easily to ID in dark or (hopefully not) in a smoke filled environment. These Red FAKs
I have tried the only set back negative feedback IMO is 'If' damp in anyway the red dye from such may ruin the contents of the kit
talking from experience. I have both Forces & Scottish Ambulance Service 1st Aid training over the years.
Regards
David

 

[British Red]

Having now been first on scene to three RTAs with serious injuries, I have completely revised my car kit. In effect, in the car, I carry some stuff for family use (plasters, sun cream, anti histamine etc.). Above that I carry a large number of very large (Ambulance no 9 and FFD) type dressings as the main component. In each case my role has been to preserve life until the experts arrive and unfortuantely, with serious injuries, large pad dressings are all that can work to keep the necessaries on the inside. I have extended my kit to cover a number of amber strobes two warning triangles, high viz waistoats and a couple of torches and two PMR radios. My rationale for that stuff is that on two occasions the accident happened at night. The most important thing was to prevent further accidents. Having used this kit it went like this. Give my passenger and a passer by a high viz each, set out warning triangles and amber strobes and give the others a torch apiece. Station one up and one down the road to prevent people "piliing in". The PMRs let them keep in touch with each other to stop traffic in one direction and let the queue through from the other. In the meantime I was turning off engines, performing assessments and whatever basic first aid I could to preserve life till the experts arrived. All I really needed was stuff to prevent large amounts of claret leaking out.

I know it sounds silly, but on the first occasion I was involved in this stuff, tools to prevent someone else rounding a corner and adding to the mayhem would have been more useful than first aid!

Red