First aid / AR kit

Evan Sussman

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Feb 26, 2013
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287
Location
Stanwood, Washington
I'm working on putting together more robust kits for our trucks. The issue I have with many off the shelf kits is that they can't handle a likely scenario for us.

My list of additions:
- SAM splint
- Israeli trauma compression bandage
- antihistamine in packets not bottle
- medical tape 1"
- laminated kit list, with emergency response protocol on back.i.e. scene size up, 911, AR flowchart, etc
- write in rain pad for accident notes

What else do you all recommend? I would like to compile a list.


Edit to add:

- asprin - heart attack
- self adhesive bandages
- eye wash kit
- all weather pen
- headlamp
- bandage sheers
- c spine collar
- bandage sheers
- triangle bandages
- electrolyte drink mix
- CAT tourniquet
- vetwrap self adhesive bandages
- tweezers - see Uncle Bill's
- celox - blood stopping powder
- bee suit
- aerosol insect poison
 
Am I not seeing Celox packs?

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  • #5
Both good calls.

I didn't list tweazers because they are required in the basic OSHA kits, but you're right they should be listed.

Butch, are there any drawbacks you're aware of in applying bloodstopper?
 
All the bigger outfits I subbed for had bee keeper suits and aerosol bee killer insecticides.

I still carry both.

Bee hives should not necessarily shut down a jobsite, wasps or hornets either.

Of course it's preferable for the salesman to have a keen enough eye to spot hives and have a professional beekeeper relocate the entire hive, ideally.

Jomo
 
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  • #8
Butch, I'm glad it worked. :) On the list, and in the shopping cart.

Jomo, bee suit. Good idea. I just caught up on one of August's middle aged videos with a bee suit. It was pretty humorous, but I forgot to put it on my "to-buy" list.

We definitely have bee poison, though we've only used it on wasps.
 
The phone number to a relocator is nice. This reminds me that I need to find it. As jomo said a good salesman can spot them but they are quite camouflaged most of the time. I sure as heck haven't been hit when I could spot then nest. Some might remember the honey bee swarm but that was not a nest
 
Few things I might suggest would be a bunch of 4x4's and several rolls of roller gauze. The Israeli dressing is nice, but expensive! With a little practice you can make a fine pressure dressing with 4x4's and roller gauze.

I like that you have a tourniquet in the works.......spend very little time on a bad arterial bleed with a pressure dressing. Not sure what the most common arteries cut are in your line of work, but a femoral is very hard to control with a bandage. If you can grab it by hand, that it good, or plug it with your finger, but a femoral usually pulls back and is hard to visualize. Think Black Hawk Down.

Tourniquet usage was at one time considered a last ditch tool. Now it is to be applied early......but only if it is a commercial device.


Do not keep adding dressings! If you have to stack dressings to "control" the bleeding.....you have controlled NOTHING! People have bled out into dressings.

Get some gloves and store them in a sandwich baggie. Larges are a good size to have.

A pocket mask for CPR is a good addition, and then learn CPR.

The only thing I might caution against would be the C collar. We are getting away from C collars in the field. The only time I would attempt to apply a C collar would be a sitting patient. Like leaning up against a tree, or someone sitting in a wrecked car. Applying a C collar to a person lying on his back often does more harm than good.

If for any reason that you might suspect a cervical spine injury, call 911.
 
Buying these and adding to them. Nice when we have to climb up some where, put it on and go to the work.
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SAM splint (1)
SOF tourniquet (1)
Israeli bandage pressure dressing (1)
Triangular bandages (2)
Flex-grid film 4" x 4.75" (1)
2" x 2" gauze pad (5)
2" Elastic bandages (2)
2" x 4" adhesive bandages (5)
1" x 3" adhesive bandages (20)
Steri-strips (1 pack)
Knuckle bandages (10)
Waterproof surgical tape roll (1)
Krinkle gauze roll (2)
Combat medic reinforcement tape (1)

Oval Eye pads (4)
1 eyewash cup
1 bottle saline
10 Benadryl
10 Ibuprofen (200mg x2)
1 Betadyne sponge
5 4"x4" sponges
1 CPR/O2 face shield
12 antiseptic wipes
1 wound irrigation syringe
4 tincture Benzoin swabs
Scissors (1 pair)
Forceps (1 pair)
1 Conterra Patrol 2 bag
 
The cpr class is good but the first aid course kinda sucks. Basically said put pressure and call 911. That and I'm supposed to holler that someone should get an AED. Honestly I'm surprised that no one sells a first aid kit designed for what we do. Most are a lot of bandaids and a bunch of other shit that we won't use. My kids use bandaides, I just say f it. When it gets a bit worse than that,i use the whole kit. I buried my spur into my heel less than two weeks ago and I used the antibiotic ointment and a pad that I had no tape for. This was a new kit. I had to take the wrapper off of it.
 
I know it's been mentioned in one form or another, bloodstopper bandages. I'd order one or two from Madsens when I was making a big order and that way I had one in various places. The nice thing about them is that the dressing is attached to the bandage. Just apply to wound and start wrapping.
 
Before quitting Ski Patrol I stocked up on everything we skied with every run w a few extras that proved handy ... Actually two times (plus) over. Keep one full Harper pack in the house and one on the truck always. Covers the basics plus some. Draw the line there ... I suppose if you need C collar , O2 , AED , traction ... just gotta wait I guess.
 
Has anyone mentioned pneumatic arm n leg splints?

I carry both. Better late than never, as I hope I never have to use them.

But experience has taught me otherwise, when I wish I'd had them.

Jomo
 

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I ditto Jim on the tourniquets...the mantra is 'High, Wide, and Tight' so, high up into the armpit or groin, this is where the artery is closest to a bone so it can be compressed against it, have the band at least 2" wide, and make it TIGHT, like painful tight. Write 'T' and the time on the patient's forehead. They have 1 hr. before any knock on effect starts to happen from the tourniquet. It lets the EMT's/doctors know they might have extra things to consider once they arrive for treatment.

Israeli bandages on Wesspur are like $8...that's not expensive.

Also agree about cervical spine collars. They are fast going out of recommendation. IF a person is capable of self rescue, then they don't need a c spine collar, just bolster their head with towels and if they have to be moved then one person is tasked with holding the head and calling the movements.

So many collars are put on incorrectly they actually do little to immobilise the spine, and can make the patient uncomfortable and even panicky.

Air goes in and out, blood goes round and round, any deviation from this is bad...rectify it. If someone cannot breathe, or is haemorrhaging badly (catastrophic amputation or arterial bleed, do what you need to do to fix this, even to the point of moving them from a position where one might suspect a spinal injury. If you don't they will die.
 
A word on tourniquets.

The SOFT is better than the CAT in every way possible. It is way heavier duty and all of the parts that matter are metal instead of plastic, and the webbing is way stronger. 1491606749647-16767559.jpg

Above is a side by side, with the SOFT on the right.
 
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