First Aid kits

There are first aid kits and FIRST AID kits. The former are suitable for little boo boos and the like and they’re OK in the current milieu where having the opportunity of actually going to an Emergency Department and have that gash sutured closed under sterile conditions, get an XRay, a  tetanus shot and fill the Rx at a nearby pharmacy is taken for granted. These are easily found from brick and mortar stores to on-line merchants. What I need and continue to develop is a First Aid kit that will be useful when professional care is not available.

There are a few “levels” of kits I keep in mind, paying attention to likely injuries and weight penalty. I have not figured it out, but redundancy is actually helpful despite the weight penalty.

The kits are in molle pouches to allow them to be attached to different bags, tactical vest or tossed in the car. Like a pistol, it does you no good if it’s not readily available.

The ‘lightest” kit I have is a small molle bag on the top of my BOB. It is my most easily accessible kit has stuff for ‘boo boo’s’ that I expect to encounter while walking. It has bandaids, neosporin-like goop, and the usual mundane stuff for little boo boos. But it does have some extras.  I packed some moleskin because, well, blisters happen when you’re humping a bag that weighs too much! It also has a few tubes of Superglue - I don’t know if “Bonds skin instantly” is a warning label or directions. Excellent stuff for smaller clean-edged lacerations. Even large ones in some circumstances. Some steri strips (the modern version of ‘butterfly’ closures. The kit is easy to get to to minimize the odds a small cut will get infected, culminating in septicemia (infection in the blood stream and you’re a dead man walking unless you get some serious antibiotics).  If it wasn’t easily accessed, it would go unused, and that blister, scrape or whatever would go untreated (or under-treated) and risk escalating into a real medical problem. A stitch in time sort of thing. 

My medium size kit, in a pouch on the outside of my BOB, skips supplies for the small stuff and is for serious wounds. A few Israeli bandages (look them up and buy a few), a few bags of Celox (a powder that  stops bleeding -even from an artery), some tampons (sprinkle on the Celox and push it in the penetrating wound - as in bullet wound), some more steri strips, a pair of CAT’s (Combat Applied Tourniquet - one should be attached to you MBR (Main Battle Rifle), some sterile 4  X 4’s, a few sutures, Coban wrap, trauma scissors, a pair of space blankets (actually space sleeping bags) for someone in shock, a high volume water filer (1 micron) to hydrate and wash wounds with unsterile but clean as I can get it water, a bottle of betadine and some neosporin goop. I don’t have the space to pack splints and the like, and will need to resort to tree branches. Lots of available tree branches where I am.

I’m (too) slowly working on a larger kit which has the above and a bunch of surgical tools (more scapels/blades, hemostats, needle holders, some small retractors).  It is a work in progress and will be stored at the Refuge.

I have yet to figure out is the amount of supplies to carry. Believe me, the number of bandages, wraps, and the like that is normally used in a single trauma is already far more than I’m carrying. Getting wounded or injured in field conditions will be very bad and likely life-threatening at the very least. With these First Aid kits, I hope to minimize odds that small injuries become large ones.

For me, one of the saddest thing is that if the balloon does go up, there’s a possibility that we will devolve back to medicine at the level of the Civil War - no antibiotics, no IV hydration let alone transfusions, anesthesia limited to alcohol... at least the meme of bacteria and sterility may survive for awhile. Where a simple splinter can lead to death, and bronchitis and pneumonia will be once again deadly. 

So the necessities you should look for:

Israeli bandages (CountyComm.com often has a good price). Theses are made to place a nice wad of gauze on a wound and then wrap the ACE bandage like arms around to create a pressure dressing to minimize blood loss. Easy to use. Packs OK and is light. Use with Celox!

Celox (clotting agent) available in powder form and also bandages impregnated with it. It stops bleeding, even arterial bleeds. Yeah, it saves lives.

Tampons (many more uses for them like starting a fire). Got a penetrating wound that’s hard to get pressure on? Grab some of these and jam them down the wound track. Get some Celox on them first if you can.

Coban wrap - used from holding a bandage on to wrapping a sprained joint to stabilizing a splint. 1001 uses. Gets some.

CAT (tourniquets). Do I need to state the obvious?

Betadine - a large weight penalty but great stuff. Better shelf life than hydrogen peroxide.

These items are good to have - if you don’t know to use them, someone else might.

Some training on first aid is good, but for most, will always be on the ‘to do’ list. Do be one of them.

Legal disclaimer - the usual- this is not medical advice. Get trained up before using any more advanced than a band aid. We’re talking about first aid when there are no other alternatives. 

Side notes -- Looks like Costa Rica is going to default very soon. Soros is buying gold and every day that passes, the likelihood of an Israeli-Iran (Israeli-moslem brotherhood??) war increases towards certainty, corn harvest devastation already having ripple effect in the world .... Oy vey!

Correction: Ooops, not Costa Rica, but Belize.... [21 Aug 2012]