Guns and First Aid Kits

[mgdavis]

I carry a First Aid kit in my truck at all times, have since I was 16. The current incarnation came from oxarc.com. It came in a steel box, I just throw it under the seat and forget about it. When I was a Boy Scout we had a fairly large and comprehensive troop first-aid kit contained in a tackle box. It is a good idea for a trunk kit. There are also several manufacturers (sp?) that make dedicated seatbelt cutters so you avoid accidently cutting your patient with a knife.

[Limeyfellow]

My wife is a nurse and she makes sure we have rather good first aid kits in the car and the house and so on. I also take one with us when we are camping and hiking out in the wilderness. Mostly its used for cuts and mosquito bites but you never know and on at least one occasion we saved a guy's life who collapsed and had stopped breathing and heart had stopped and got it restarted with cpr.

I would recommend infact everyone take a cpr course and basic first aid lessons. They are not too expensive and there are many quality organisations that will give you lessons for not too much money.

[Lawyer Daggit]

I have carried a first aid kit in the car for some years now and I have printed off the above lists and checked them against the contents.

[S.E.R.T.SGT]

There are some really good ideas in this thread. As a LEO as well as First Responder I have a leather bag that I carry with me whereever I go. Among other things in the bag, , I always make sure that I have a good first aid kit to handle most of the problems I might encounter while out and about. I would recommend this to everyone. You never know when it might be needed.

[butch50]

I can tell you that it is very very bad feeling to have no first aid equipment when you need it. Definitely not a feeling I want to repeat.

[powderedonuts]

You all succeded in making me feel really stupid.

I am putting together a first aid kit as soon as posisble.

[butch50]

Well hell, I got to stupid first didn't I?

Just passing along what I figured out the hard way. I sure was glad when someone out of the crowd came up with that roll of guaze and those clean towels.

[mvpel]

I decided a few of years ago, when we lived in California, to be sure I had a fire extinguisher, flares, and a first-aid kit in the car. And after we moved to New Hampshire, and were driving down to New York for Passover in 2004, we had to use it - a car passing us on the freeway in CT suddenly burst out with huge plumes of white smoke.

Turned out the guy's head gasket had blown and the engine was spraying a fine mist of oil onto the exhaust manifold, further misted by the spinning belts and pulleys.

We managed to put out the fire with the extinguisher I grabbed from my trunk, and thanks to that he was able to sell the car to the place that towed it in Connecticut, from his home in Pittsburgh, without a lot of expense and hassle that would have been inevitable if the car had been seriously damaged by fire.

It's quite surprising when it happens, but it feels good to have the tools at the ready to deal with situations like these.

[LAK]

Great job Butch.

In addition to a first aid kit, a fire extinguisher is a good thing to keep in the car. I like the intermediate size class ABC type that stand about 2 feet high and are about 4+ inches in diameter.

Incidently, in the circumstance you described, manpower may have worked as a last resort. I was driving a taxi in the U.K. for awhile years ago, and one night came across a guy pinned under the back axle of a rather large (by euro standards) station wagon with a small crowd around it.

All he could manage was a muffled "get it off me" as he was flat on his back with the axle across his chest. I started counting heads around me - more than half a dozen.

"Pick it up!"

And with about six pairs of hands on the back bumper and wheel wells - up it went, while someone slid the guy out of the way by his feet.

We could have easily walked this car, one end at a time, a considerable distance. I recall during my military days as a prank some of the guys at one of my duty stations picked up some gal's car and moved it a considerable distance across a parking lot.

[JohnKSa]

Never EVER remove a crushing weight unless the victim is certain to die rapidly if it is not removed.

Similarly if a victim is pinched or crushed between two objects, do NOT remove the pressure if at all possible.

It is likely that there are internal injuries and the pressure is preventing massive bleeding. It is not uncommon for a person to bleed out almost immediately upon removal of the pressure. In one case, a man was pinned against a loading dock by a semi trailer. He was talking and joking with rescuers while pinned, but instantly collapsed and died when the trailer was moved. That was in spite of the best efforts of emergency responders already on the scene.

Furthermore, with crushing injuries, the spine or neck may be damaged and the victim shouldn't be moved unless there is no alternative.

Along the same lines, if a victim is impaled, do NOT remove the impaling object unless it is clear that the victim will immediately die without removal. The impaling object is probably reducing the bleeding and removing it could cause the victim to bleed to death very rapidly.

Remember, the first rule is not to make things worse. If you're the kind of person who wants to get involved, you need to get some training so that you're helping and not hurting.

[LAK]

JohnKSa

Never EVER remove a crushing weight unless the victim is certain to die rapidly if it is not removed. [etc]

This depends - and you stated as much.

In this case the victim could barely breathe. Bear in mind too that this was in Britain before any of the peasants had cell phones. And in the days when ambulances - at least in the U.K. - were brightly painted taxis with flashing lights and a two-tone horn. No life support equipment and ambulance drivers were not even trained like the current EMT types.

As an aside, I arrived in the aftermath of an accident recently where the victim died under a vehicle, the first responders having waited for a succession of special units etc. He was dead in less than twenty minutes. A hospital was minutes away by car.

[KHarmon]

I might have missed it while scrolling through the posts....but Galls carries enough first aid stuff to turn your car into a small emergency room. Someone suggested a knife for seatbelts...I've been a cop for 11 years and have worked hundreds of accidents including some really gruesome fatalities, and to this day I've never found a seat belt that was stuck. What I have found were situations that I couldn't get to the seatbelt release because of damage, and in one case the console of the vehicle had smashed the release so tightly between it and the seat I couldn't get it out. I refuse to leave the house without a good knife, and in case I do lose that knife, I have another one in the glove compartment of my car, my patrol bag that rides next to me, and one in every first aid kit I have including my patrol car and my personal vehicles. For sure get a reflective vests...nothing like going to an accident scene at night and having to play "dodge the Dodge" while trying to do first aid or direct traffic around the car.

Something else I would add to the mix, either get some chem lights or road flares to put out at night just for the added visibility for night time accidents.

PS. If you ever see me standing on the side of the road nearly in tears...it's because I lost the Benchmade Auto Folder that I carry with me everywhere I go. I LOVE that knife!!!!!

[blackmind]

What am I forgetting?

It's tough to say... It's easy for us gear-hogs to wish to turn a "bug-out bag" into, well, a home! Put enough stuff into it and it's no longer practical, right?

I would say that to your list I would add a small camp hatchet, although maybe the machete covers that, sort of. If given a choice of one OR the other, I think I'd go with hatchet. I'd also add a bottle of Zippo lighter fluid, and a tough Zippo lighter. You don't always want to start a road flare to get a fire going, right? Nothing is as simple and reliable a lighter as a Zippo. Purely mechanical, sturdy, functional.

I would also add a generous length of 550 paracord. This is available, actually, in a wide variety of colors. I would recommend black, and neon yellow. (order from ubraidit.com -- click "supplies" and then "parachute cord/paracord in 30 colors")

That stuff is extremely versatile, probably more so than 1/2" rope on a day-to-day basis. And it's cheap. That site sells 500' spools for about $30.

This is an awesome thread!

-blackmind

[butch50]

KHarmon

Because you have been going to wrecks to rescue people for 11 years you have my undying respect. I have been to one, and that is enough for me. I am better prepared now if I have to go to another one, but I am certainly not looking for it.

[JohnKSa]

LAK,

I don't know what your level of training is so I wasn't commenting directly on your actions, only to the forum in general. I was just using your post as a springboard, so to speak.

The "you" in my post was general, not directed specifically at you (LAK).

I also want to make it clear that I am NOT trying to discourage people from helping at a trauma scene, just pointing out that some things that seem the obvious thing to do can be really exactly the wrong thing to do. First Aid and CPR training are available at low cost and are an important asset in the "bag of tricks" of a person determined to be prepared.

[butch50]

Those are good things to point out. It is anti-intuitive not to pull that steel rod out of the victim's chest. But with training you learn that pulling the rod out is the worst thing you can do at the scene, unless there is a very good reason to.

My own idea on first aid is to do the major things to keep someone alive until an ambulance arrives - which is generally going to take no more than 30 minutes most of the places where I go. That is why I picked a first aid kit that was heavy on the large trauma wound stuff and not band aids.

I may start a separate thread on bug out bags though, that is a whole nother thing and quite interesting to me.

[LAK]

JohnKSa

I don't know what your level of training is so I wasn't commenting directly on your actions, only to the forum in general. I was just using your post as a springboard, so to speak [etc]

Yep; gotcha.

And on the same lines, as you probably know - but for those who do not; same general rule applies to removing motorcycle helmets.

[Edison Carter]

Thanks butch for reminding me of stuff which needs attention.

I'll add gas masks to my bag, seems like there is often smoke,
and fumes, and noxious vapors when things go freaky.

EC

[KHarmon]

KHarmon

Because you have been going to wrecks to rescue people for 11 years you have my undying respect. I have been to one, and that is enough for me. I am better prepared now if I have to go to another one, but I am certainly not looking for it.


Thanks for the compliment....going to accident scenes, especially bad ones, is one of my least favorite ones. One of the scariest things to do is walk up to a car on a major accident and see a car seat in the back seat!!!! I've been lucky to a certain degree....I've never worked a major injury or death on an infant, the youngest fatality due to a car accident I've worked was a 5 year old and that one about killed me...my oldest son had started 1st grade that year. I hope nobody comes up on a major accident...but by the sheer number of cars on the road in todays modern society...it's almost inevitable. It's for that reason that I think everyone should at least carry some basics with them...it may be a total stranger, or you yourself may become involved in an accident. I haven't heard the statistic in a long time...but there used to be something written that on average, every licensed driver if the US will be involved in a traffic accident sometime in their life. That includes fender benders and major accident. As they always say...its much better to be safe than sorry!!!!

[shaggypiper]

Again hat's off to you Butch, what's truly mind blowing is the amount of people that would drive on by or turn around and go the other way. It's up to the few decent folk to set the standard for the rest to follow.
I came up on an Evil Kenievil impersonator back Nov and had to use my bag, here's a few things that I found useful:
6" or 8" ace bandage wraps, you can use them for pressure bandages
Isreali Field Dressing- this may be a toughy to find I got them from my unit's medic but if you find them GET EM!! They are an all inclosed hands free pressure dressing.
Heavy duty latex gloves, not the cheapy's you'll be working around broken glass
Good medic safety scissors, again not the cheapy's, the one's they advertize cutting through pennies.
3 words for you, Curlex,Curlex, Curlex- you can't have enough! I carry four 6" rolls on my flight gear in case of GSWs.
Duct tape or 100Mph tape- when hasn't this come in handy?
Small notebook and pen to take down info and pass to medics
Good flashlight-I use a Streamlight Stinger but Sure Fire or a Petzl Head lamp would be great too.
SAM's Splint- it's a rolled up piece of aluminum encased in foam that you can bend every which way to form a splint- I'll post an example pic when I get out of the sand box.
Bottled water and a wooby (poncho liner for you civi-minded folks) pic it up from the surplus store.

There are a few other ancilary items that I won't go into as they've been covered but there have been some great points brought up. Primarily, bring what you need to the fight but don't buy an SUV to accomodate your blow out bag. All the things I listed are in a Camelback Mule under the back seat of my truck. Also other things, Flares, Jumper Cables, Fire Extinguisher- my 2 bits on this if a fire does break out while you are still inside working on wounded then yeah attempt to put it out, but if the casualty is a safe distance away and upwind of the fire, let that bastard burn! You're primary consideration is the patient's [and your] safety.

Lastly on the matter of those clotting bandages a word of caution- and this may sound wierd but I watched this happen over here with one of our troops. Those bandages are impregnated with a derivative of shrimp shells- ain't mother nature great? - anyway if you're going to apply that bandage, prior to if able ask the victum if they are allergic to shellfish. DON'T LAUGH (I'm kinda chuckling about it myself) but seriously if they are and you stick that deal on them, you could possibly cause a hell of alot more complications. Our guy swole up so bad they almost had to crake him. So if it's a puncture wound I'd cram curlex into it and put a pressure bandage over it.

Sorry for the novel guys but a great topic.

[JohnKSa]

a great topic

I agree. I learned some things, and I think I'll try to make some additions to my "kit".

My thanks to all who have contributed.