s: a bright red one to go in the range bag and an unobtrusive black one to stick on my Maxpedition purse.Is this because I want to be tactically prepared for a shootout in the Kroger parking lot like an operator? No, this is acknowledging the fact that I carry a gun everywhere and that anywhere I carry a gun, there is a small but non-zero chance I may accidentally bust a cap in my own ass with it. Yes, Plan A is "Follow The Four Rules"; I got that. Call this a fairly cheap form of "F$#@-Up Insurance". Besides, I already had a basic first aid kit in the purse; this just expanded its capabilities. I don't think it's necessary, but it could come in handy.
Oh, and I picked up a couple extra tourniquets to replace the ones in the kits. I figured that since I'm not trying to hide from enemy fire, an orange
one made more sense. I can't think of any downsides to medical personnel being able to see the thing better. (I put one of the resulting spares out in the garage, where my roommate does all her woodworking with power tools. Can't hurt.).
No, it can't. Back when I was starting on knifemaking, read a piece about a maker who was putting 'a little final polish' on a finished knife, and the buffing wheel grabbed, spun it once and threw it out point-first into his thigh.
ReplyDeleteDamn near bled out before an ambulance arrived.
I agree with your logic for modifying first aid kits for worst case scenarios. But the best thing is putting some WTSHTF supplies in the garage. I have cut myself more changing blades on power tools than using them. Of course now I religiously use leather gloves and those plastic safety guards, that I always had, but thought were for sissies.
ReplyDeleteSmart Woman!! If you are gonna hang out where people are shootin' You just CANNOT have too many boo-boo kits and BOP's handy. 'Cause ya never know when the good idea fairy will visit.---Ray
ReplyDeleteLike the Boy Scouts have been saying for years,"Be Prepared".
ReplyDeleteThis makes more sense than a medical kit sewn together from an old towel and hidden on a high shelf, which is what I have. I wonder where I could get one of those red medical bags?
ReplyDeleteI had a ka-boom last year no injuries and no first aid supplies. So I picked up a trauma kit and extra bandages and I also picked up some Eyewash and Eye patches as most kits do not have much in the way for eye care
ReplyDeleteBest eyewash solution I've found is store brand contact solution.
DeleteInexpensive, available in a variety of sizes to match the kit, and even if you don't wear contacts and can rotate your "first aid" eye juice into your daily use stick as it approaches its use by dae, you won't feel as bad dumping it, because it is cheap and readily available.
Reading fail I guess, is that a one handed tourniquete? If not did you consider one?
ReplyDeleteI've been working to throw together more comprehensive first aid kits in the house, car, and for the wife and I to carry around. Moving to Chicago, where the chance of getting shot is definitely non-zero, is motivation to get some IFAKs. Also, becoming semi-regular caretakers of a toddler nephew has me thinking more like "over prepared uncle" than ever before.
ReplyDelete-Rob
Ray: That Good Idea Fairy has really screwed up more people ...
ReplyDeleteEvery place I ever working handling metal, wood or plastic we had some pretty good first aid kits. Not so much by today's standards.
ReplyDeleteHaving a tourniquet is good insurance. Celox is getting some bad press in the EMT world as it is hard to clean from a wound after use. On the other hand, it stops heavy bleeding like nothing else.
First aid is like anything else. Every accident you have you are there.
It's not so much that Celox is difficult to clean from the wound, since the EMTs are not the ones doing that. Even the surgeons I know wouldn't bitch about that if it resulted in a viable patient for them to work on.
DeleteThe knock on chitosan bandages and products like Quik Clot is that they're a) expensive, and b) not proven to be appreciably better at stopping bleeding than a tourniquet and good wound packing and bandaging techniques using a POB (plain old bandage).
Medical providers - especially EMTs - are just as susceptible to equipment derp as shooters are to falling for boutique bullets and buying the latest Tactoblaster 3000.
It seems that the less knowledge and quality training you have, the more likely you are to believe that a gadget is the best replacement for it.
That is a good thought, I need to add those items to my bag.
ReplyDeleteNot long ago finally found a bag I really liked for putting the kit in. Brightest color was a light coyote brown; lady pointed out that they also had them in woodland and digicam, and I told her if they had one in international orange I'd take that one, I wanted this thing to be easy to find no matter what. Tam's comment about the orange tourniquet reminded me.
Good advice all around and I think I will run by the drug store today and stock up. Most all of my first aid stuff is still in my hunting day pack and designed mostly to take care of my dog, he died three years ago. I don't have anything for a major wound and I guess I need to remedy that.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your great blog site.
Also a recent beneficiary of one of the burgeoning tacmed classes coming online these days; also recently invested in mo' blowout. Good stuff. I have scattered CATs and SOFTs all over the place in the last year: cars, EDC bags and range kit, primarily.
ReplyDeletePS. The olaes bandage can act as an eye cup, FWIW.
Yes, first aid kit in the shop or garage is a good idea.
ReplyDeleteYou are more likely to injure yourself with a power tool than with a gun.
In fact, I sometimes recommend that one go ahead and drill a hole through the hand or nip off the end of a finger with a power saw just to get it over with because it will happen eventually.
Woodman,
ReplyDelete"Reading fail I guess, is that a one handed tourniquete?"
Yes. :)
And vehicle accidents.
ReplyDeleteAnd axes through the window-
http://jalopnik.com/hey-you-know-whats-terrifying-an-axe-through-your-wind-1613428614
Agreed, Staghounds. That's why the daily driver's "CarFAK" is hanging from the back of the passenger seat headrest. So, if need be, I can reach the kit (especially the TK) while still belted in the driver's seat. Because it would suck doubly hard to have the right stuff and still die because you couldn't reach it before you bled out.
DeleteHmm, that brings up the question:
ReplyDeleteif one is allergic to seafood (not the shellfish type), would that quickclot be contra-indicated?
Quik Clot uses a hydrophilic mineral blend to stop bleeding, not shrimp shells.
DeleteCelox and the other chitosan (protein from shrimp shells) infused bandages are indeed safe for people with shellfish allergies.
Again, hemostatic bandages are not proven to be any better than plain old bandages and wound packing, but at the very least they don't do any additional harm.
+1,000 on the "F&#* Up Insurance" I find it equally as prudent as carrying a firearm since both are basically insurance against "small but non-zero chance" events and we all support and recommend carrying.
ReplyDeleteRE: seafood, no. No issues is what I was taught.
ReplyDelete@AD: is the protein denatured or something? Only way I can think of it being safe for people with severe allergies.
ReplyDelete"Because it would suck doubly hard to have the right stuff and still die because you couldn't reach it before you bled out."
ReplyDeleteThat's what gives me the willies. I still haven't found a place in my car for a FAK bag that is both accessible, and that I trust to hold it secure if the car rolls. It's sort of an issue. That's why I have a loose CAT in the driver's side door pocket with a bunch of plastic bags and shit packed in on top of it to wedge it in. CAT doesn't weigh much; I could probably endo the Mini a couple if times and still dig the CAT out of the pocket if I was more or less in one piece. [/shrug]
Ps. Good info, ambulance.
You talked me into a red IFAK too
ReplyDeleteBack of the passenger headrest seems to me the easiest to reach in a wreck place for something bulky to me, too. Mag lite glass breaker is on the door sill.
ReplyDeleteThat tourniquet is the same type we carry on our ambulances. I like the orange idea, I'll have to suggest those to our Supply Lt.
ReplyDelete@AD - As an interesting aside, at the VA EMS Symposium a couple of years ago one of the classes I attended was on the various clotting agents. He hit on the lack of evidence of increased effectiveness that you mention here. One theory he had is that if a wound is serious enough that a hemostatic bandage is indicated, then by the time EMS arrives to apply it the body's clotting ability is already exhausted. Without the usual "surplus" clotting factors floating around the bloodstream, the hemostatic agents don't have anything to work with, and clotting will only happen as fast as the body can generate new clotting factors.
Of course, that information is two years out of date, and new research may have shown something else by now. But it's certainly an interesting theory.
Speaking of clotting...few years back, on the first post-op checkup after minor heart surgery (two stents) my doc looked at my wrists and asked where my medic alert bracelet was.
ReplyDeleteHe pointed out that I was on anti-coagulants (Plavix) and would be for about 15 months. Cut, I would bleed like the proverbial stuck pig and keep bleeding, and severely bruised, potentially bleed internally. He envisioned a worst case of falling off the motorcycle or bicycle, getting heavy abdominal or thoracic bruising, and assuming I was OK when in fact I would be in dire need of some very heavy duty assistance pretty damn quickly.
As he put it, "when you fall over unconscious 3 minutes after the accident, it would be handy if someone had a clue what was wrong. Wear the bracelet."
I started wearing the bracelet and added a tourniquet and an IBD to the saddlebags and the bicycle handebar bag.
I've been pretty good on "gun stuff" IFAKs but the car scenario just gave me pause; the stuff in my little pickup is over the passenger seat but Bride's car kit is ALL THE WAY IN THE BACK. That'll get changed as soon as I leave work.
ReplyDeleteI've been making do for the last [mumble] years with my old Bike EMS pack (which is actually a fishing fanny pack - yes, the first year we did bicycle EMS, we had to supply our own bikes and bags), which I keep in the trunk.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this post, I decided to update my kit and ordered this bag. It should come in today, and we'll see how well it works. As a bonus, I should be able to mount the base behind the passenger seat, so if I need it all I'll need to do is reach over and pull it free.
Sidheshooter --
ReplyDeleteI bought a cheap-ass airsoft "plate carrier" (covered in PALS webbing) off eBay for about $10, and hung that around the struts holding the passenger headrest on. CarFAK is a cheap ass MOLLE SAW pouch I got off eBay for about $5, with a red cross patch on the lid, MOLLE'd to the "plate carrier".
As a bonus, I use the unused PALS sections to stuff fast-food plastic wrapped utensil sets and a couple of ball point pens. . .
My new bag came in, and it seems to work pretty well. Now I just need to figure out where to mount it.
ReplyDelete