First aid kit contents

[sausage100uk]

I was packing up/building a new fak to go in my rucksack and I thought i'd post a pic. It would be interesting to see what others are carrying.

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[Purgatorio]

Nice idea! And a lot of cool stuff. But without mentioning your medical first aid skill level and intended use for this kit, a comparison with other kits will be difficult.
So could you tell us a bit more?


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[sausage100uk]

This was intended as a kit for general camping and overnighters not too far from civilisation, i.e EMS and hospital services well within reach. I was looking to cover the basics i.e. headache and poorly tummy up to and including the serious stuff.

Bottom row: Emergency blanket, crepe bandages, Self adhesive bandage, 20ml and 5ml syringes, tourniquet, alco wipes and gel.

Middle row: Gloves, sharps - (tweezers, forceps scissors and scalpel) pins, lip balm, various meds (paracetamol, cocodamol, i buprofen and diclofenac, diaoralyte, antihistamines, anti diarrhoea tabs, chlorine tabs) tongue depressors (useful for tourniquets) 2x 20ml sterile saline, 14g cannula, 25 g needles OP airway.

Top Row: Laryngoscope and blade, macgills forceps. Packet of plasters, steristrips, wound adhesive, various dressings.

HTH

 

[Bluffer]

Laryngoscope? Seriously dude?

 

[sausage100uk]

yep definitely remember cABC, once backslaps and abdo thrusts and chest compressions have failed to remove the cheese pasty from an airway then its time to get up close and personal with the epiglottis ;-)

 

[Bluffer]

OK.

Cannulas, but no fluids?

 

[sausage100uk]

not practical to carry it really, too bulky/heavy. I put it in as its a large bore 14g, if **** and theres big trauma an early cannulation is more likely to be easer than one when the ambo arrives. Can also be used to decompress a chest with a tension pneumothorax, you could also do "in the field" piercings with it

 

[Bluffer]

mmm.

Last question - tourniquet? Maybe upgrade that one?

 

[sausage100uk]

that's just a cannulation one. you can make one just as good as a CAT with the tongue depressors and some cloth (apparently the USMC all used to carry 2 tongue depressors taped together for this reason).

 

[Wildgoose]

Just out of curiosity what is your medical training?

Always useful to know who to go to in an emergency!

 

[sausage100uk]

specialist paramedic for local ambulance trust

 

[Wildgoose]

Nice one. Good to know guys with your skills are out and about.

 

[Bluffer]

you can make one just as good as a CAT with the tongue depressors and some cloth (apparently the USMC all used to carry 2 tongue depressors taped together for this reason).

I've never seen that, I've been on the ground with them as well?

CAT tourniqets often struggle, anything less simply wouldn't work so I deffo would use a CAT. You must have them at work?

 

[sausage100uk]

yeah we have one on every vehicle along with Israeli dressings and chest seals, TBH in 10 years I have never seen an injury that NEEDED a CAT - even though I've put them on. if you cant control haemorrhage with direct and indirect pressure then the poo has definitely hit the windmill and unless you have some pharmacological (tranexamic acid) and volumetric (blood) backup then your only hope is wind it tight and apply diesel...

 

[rickyamos]

only carry the medical kit you know how to use, the rest is just dead weight.

 

[sausage100uk]

I agree. its a shame we don't do enough first aid in schools.

 

[muracada]

. its a shame we don't do enough first aid in schools

That gets my vote:You_Rock_

 

[Kepis]

I agree. its a shame we don't do enough first aid in schools.

They do round here, from middle school to school leaving age, it's free for the kids to do and indeed their parents, if they want to attend as well. All organised with the St Johns and paid for by the school.

 

[Purgatorio]

Sometimes specialized knowlegde can be a disadvantage or turned into fear of not being prepared. This kit is a bit overkill if professional help is relativly close by. And your kit is more a general traffic or heavy machinery kit than an outdoor kit.
So instead of all the tournqet stuff i would do with some ducktape. And my experience is that tumbling and falling are the most common. Resulting in cuts, bruces, ankles, knees, schoulder, wrist, and head trauma.
A good amount of non etching antiseptic spray, like betadine fluid or creme for small infections, or better octenisept will do fine.
In the outdoors keeping somebody warm is a priority, so an extra space blanket and a sitting pad is useful.

Ad a Samsplint and a roll tape to go with it. I've used them many times to fixate ankles, legs, wrists and even as a collar. There lightweight, don't have to be removed to take röntgenpictures. When with a group i always keep two of them one time folded in my backpack.

I would not use any anti diareah medication other than when on the move. There is something in the body it want to get rid of and those medicin will prevent that.
The NSAID's i would complement with stomach protecters.

I see my first aid kit always as a two part kit. In the outdoors we demand more of our bodies, than at home. So one part is not getting sick or weak and consist of vitamins, nosespray, lipbalm, calendulacreme, sleeping tablets, earplugs, calendula creme, etc just stuff that keep you and family up and running fine.
The second part is for when something goes wrong.


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[Quixoticgeek]

Sometimes specialized knowlegde can be a disadvantage or turned into fear of not being prepared. This kit is a bit overkill if professional help is relativly close by.

I think there may be a key point here. But first off I am going to declare an assumption. I notice you are Dutch (Goedemorgen, Hoe gaat het met je?). And the original poster is British.

Response times vary, a lot. I know the OP of this thread is a paramedic, and so probably knows better than many on here how fast you can expect for ambulance service to arrive. There are targets, the local ambulance service has a target of getting to 75% of cat 1 calls within 8 minutes, and 95% within 19 minutes. That's "heart attack, trauma, serious bleeding", now think about it. You're in the woods, 10 miles from the nearest town, and you put a knife through an artery. I'll let you do the maths on how long you get to live before you bleed out. Then compare that to the ambulance response time target... What about if you need the air ambulance. Note my use of the definite article. Compare and contrast the number of medical choppers we have verses the number in the Netherlands. I would also be willing to wager that the Dutch have a faster response time due to an increased population density/smaller area of coverage.

Put this lot all together, and while the OP may be in the woods, 10 miles from the nearest town, the relatively close by of the ambulance is actually a bloody long way. Next time you're doing your CPR training. See how long you can keep it up for before you are physically exhausted. If someone is choking, and you've done the slaps on the back, you've done the abdominal thrusts, and the control room is still telling you that the FRU is 10minutes out. IF[2] you know what you're doing then the Laryngoscope it is going to be what saves someones life.

If you get a chance, dig out some accident statistics (I note that Dutch accident statistics, at least for cycle accidents are much more detailed than UK), you'll notice that chocking on food does account for a considerable number of deaths, more infact over a 10 year period, than terrorism (as does number of deaths related to trousers...).

I think the kit above is very well speced. There are things I would add (a few small IDF dressings, burns dressings, O2 cylinder and enternox...), but it's pretty good kit.

If I was carrying it, I would take out the Laryngascope kit, I am not trained in it's use (would love to be), so there is no point having it. Trying to use it badly could easily do more harm than good... Other than that and the additions I mention. Good kit.

J

[2]and *ONLY* if you are trained/qualified to do so.