Emergency light for first aid kit

[crlthrn]

I'm reviewing my first aid kit which lives in the car or handy about the building site which is currently home. I live in the wilds a good ambulance wait from help, and do plenty of stuff with an element of risk. First aid kit consequently includes trauma kit as I may be on my own for some time.

I'd like to add some form of lighting to it. I always have a torch on me, but it seems silly not having a light in the kit just in case. Thoughts welcomed regards what would be best!

Glow stick? Ultra reliable in long term storage, may be hard to crack into life with use of only one hand while feeling shaky.

Tiny cheap Olight style torch? Small, simple, reliable, waterproof, especially with a lithium AAA which won't leak and die like alkaline. Tricky to hold as both hands likely to be needed.

Headtorch- ideal hands free option. Cheap but not necessarily reliable? Or better quality (but without so much gadgetry/user interface it's likely to break down or forget how to switch on in emergency!) Costly for something which will hopefully never be used.

Hmmm...

I bought these for potential crises (which haven't happened yet...). As well as a myriad of highly visible flash patterns and timings, they each have a decent white light/lamp in the centre, and are magnetic. They can also double up as road flares being visible from all angles. I used a couple when I car-camped overnight down a dead end laneway in the West of Ireland to highlight my vehicle's presence. They were still merrily twirling and flashing after more than 7 hours. I use cheapo Ikea rechargeable AAs. I keep them in my vehicle always, alongside my reflective red triangle.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08DCNF3SR?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_1&th=1

 

[Glow_worm]

Question: If it's dark and you are out and about, won't you have a torch or headlight with you anyway?

Same as you, I have a small torch on me at all times, I grab a headtorch if I'm going out, there is at least one in the car... it just seems that having one in the first aid box would be sensible, it might save precious seconds. It can also be a torch which is ideally suited to first aid use (both hands needed, might be too shaky to hold a torch in the mouth etc).

I keep them in my vehicle always, alongside my reflective red triangle.

They look handy to be seen in an age where headlamps and general light pollution are getting ever-brighter and more dazzling, and drivers less and less observant! I like the claim they can be run over by a 30-ton lorry... that would make a good review!

 

[Herman30]

Question: If it's dark and you are out and about, won't you have a torch or headlight with you anyway?

Don´t need to be dark outside, you might be somewhere inside with no windows and suddenly the lights go out. It don´t matter if the sun is shining outside; you are now blind without some sort of flashlight. I have experienced this in a public toilet. Had a torch with me then and glad I did.

 

[Chris]

Most mobile phone have a torch for 'out and about', shorter term needs. I do use mine fairly often. That said, I also have a little olight or something with me at all times for where a phone is too cumbersome or I'm limited on battery.

Car has at least one torch, always.

First Aid Kit has 2 torches - a cheap keyring thing attached to it so I can see the kit contents and a little olight style torch for the first aid itself.

The aforementioned 'cheap keyring' style ones I actually have everywhere. Attached in most pockets of my day sack, on my First Aid Kit, in the main compartment of my day sack itself, just so I can see what I'm doing as I rummage around. They cost hardly anything so I don't care about longevity, though not had one let me down yet: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07BCXB83T?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_5

 

[Falstaff]

I'd forgotten about the mob phone light. I think buying some of those cheap keyring ones is a good idea.

Herman is right about the lights going out, had that happen to me several times, including on the Underground. I wasn't bothered by the dark but someone else was getting pannicky. This was pre-mobile phones, and someone else had a torch, but I didn't.

I think we all tend to hold torches/stuff in our mouths but I once had to deal with someone at night in a tent who'd had a full bodweight bite onto a scaffold pole (in a river). Heartbreakly, it was my partner, but a fall at night and a resultant bad mouth injury in the woods is an easily forseeable risk..that 2am urgent need for a wee...