For a number of years now I have carried some form of field dressing as a significant part of my EDC first aid kit. It lives in the hip pocket of my backpack along with a small zip lock of plasters and my [thread=127274]pot of pills[/thread].
For the last year or so the dressing in that hip pocket has been a small Israeli Defence Force dressing. Fortunately I've never had need for the first aid kit (besides a plaster a couple of times), and so the IDF dressing in my pocket has just been knocking around.
It appears that sticking something in a pocket and carrying it around for a while enacts quite a toll on it's structural integrity, meaning that said dressing now looks like this:
The vacuum hasn't broken, and I'm pretty sure it's still sterile, but I'm not sure for how much longer. Flipping through the SP Services catalogue I noticed that they do a pair of Trauma dressings, a T4 and a T6. These look like a white version of some of the military field dressings. As I was ordering some stuff from SPS anyway, I decided to get a few, and, rather revolutionary for me, I also decide to order the training version they sell.
T4 bandage an IDF dressing side by side.
The first thing that struck me when the bandages arrived was that they seemed big. Bigger than I thought they would be. Identifying which one was the Training bandage, I picked it up with one hand, and tore it open with my teeth. (My FAK is aimed at self treatment, so I need to be able to open it and use it on myself).
Inside the white package I found a clear vacuum package, and inside that the dressing.
I opened this with my teeth, which seemed to work very well, no undue resistance, and I think I should be able to use it in anger.
Inside the inner clear vacuum pack is a rolled up bandage. I hadn't realised when I ordered it that it would have a plastic clip to hold the thing together, having used it, this is a great idea.
Unroll the bandage a bit and you find a 100mm x 180mm absorbent pad, and then enough stretchy bandage to mummify half a body...
As with any First Aid supplies the proof is in the administering, so using one hand and my teeth, I tested out the bandage... on my other arm.
Seems to work surprisingly well, gave a nice firm compression without being too tight, was easy to apply even with one hand and teeth. (if anyone is wondering, I chose my arm as being easy to photograph, and having no doubt that I'd done it one handed (I chose my left hand as my camera is right handed...)). I had expected it to be harder, and require more practice.
As well as the T4 dressing, they also make a larger T6 dressing that is 150mm x 180mm. I ordered a pair of these to go in my chainsaw kit.
Outside of a first aid course, we tend not to do much further training, or practice with the kit that we carry, after all, most of it is sterile only until opened, and are single use. So next time you're restocking your kit, consider grabbing a training bandage and have a play.
Julia
For the last year or so the dressing in that hip pocket has been a small Israeli Defence Force dressing. Fortunately I've never had need for the first aid kit (besides a plaster a couple of times), and so the IDF dressing in my pocket has just been knocking around.
It appears that sticking something in a pocket and carrying it around for a while enacts quite a toll on it's structural integrity, meaning that said dressing now looks like this:
The vacuum hasn't broken, and I'm pretty sure it's still sterile, but I'm not sure for how much longer. Flipping through the SP Services catalogue I noticed that they do a pair of Trauma dressings, a T4 and a T6. These look like a white version of some of the military field dressings. As I was ordering some stuff from SPS anyway, I decided to get a few, and, rather revolutionary for me, I also decide to order the training version they sell.
T4 bandage an IDF dressing side by side.
The first thing that struck me when the bandages arrived was that they seemed big. Bigger than I thought they would be. Identifying which one was the Training bandage, I picked it up with one hand, and tore it open with my teeth. (My FAK is aimed at self treatment, so I need to be able to open it and use it on myself).
Inside the white package I found a clear vacuum package, and inside that the dressing.
I opened this with my teeth, which seemed to work very well, no undue resistance, and I think I should be able to use it in anger.
Inside the inner clear vacuum pack is a rolled up bandage. I hadn't realised when I ordered it that it would have a plastic clip to hold the thing together, having used it, this is a great idea.
Unroll the bandage a bit and you find a 100mm x 180mm absorbent pad, and then enough stretchy bandage to mummify half a body...
As with any First Aid supplies the proof is in the administering, so using one hand and my teeth, I tested out the bandage... on my other arm.
Seems to work surprisingly well, gave a nice firm compression without being too tight, was easy to apply even with one hand and teeth. (if anyone is wondering, I chose my arm as being easy to photograph, and having no doubt that I'd done it one handed (I chose my left hand as my camera is right handed...)). I had expected it to be harder, and require more practice.
As well as the T4 dressing, they also make a larger T6 dressing that is 150mm x 180mm. I ordered a pair of these to go in my chainsaw kit.
Outside of a first aid course, we tend not to do much further training, or practice with the kit that we carry, after all, most of it is sterile only until opened, and are single use. So next time you're restocking your kit, consider grabbing a training bandage and have a play.
Julia
