Thread: Medical Incident - Some learnings for your first aid kit.

ever given a thought to carrying a couple of lengths of day glo material on ya person -xcould come in bloody handy to indicate to a res cue helicopter.When im out duckshooting Imalways aware this is a risky business and more importantly not so much cuts or physical injury bqcause the severity becomes bloody obvious aso does your reaction but also heart attacks stroke etc -dont kid yourself it cant happen -my fathers last outing on earth was duckshooting -he succumbed to a stroke whilst sitting in his van as hias mate checked the boat on the trailer.
be arware of your mates-if they have a medical history be aware of that too.
hows your CPR-thought about updating it??.me Ive had 3 no shit sherlock tryouts and i can assure you Its nowt like a training scenario-its head down asre up 175%adrenaline-and cursing that anyone should inconvenience you by attempting to die in your presence(ok thats slightly fatuous)
We;ll done OP-using your nowse and getting through what could have been a real shit hamburger.

Can you experienced guys put a list of what should be in a first aid kit on here so we know what we should carry

I used to have a recurring nightmare about cutting myself with my knife when doing a deer. For some reason I always seem to be in a hurry. It's getting dark, not sure how to get back etc.

Originally Posted by Martin358

Can you experienced guys put a list of what should be in a first aid kit on here so we know what we should carry

I think its tempting to go overboard with a first aid kit, and then have a bunch of stuff to carry your never going to use. The only events I have experienced or been involved with out in the bush worry is cuts from a knife, (or arrowhead) like in this thread, and minor burns. So I carry bandages, band aids, and some cream stuff that works on burns. Oh, and some serious pain killers. I can't think of anything else that would realistically be useful.

Originally Posted by Yesmate

Do you like your Crispis?

Yes. They are a great light weight boot. The lack the ankle support of a more rigid boot but they are like wearing a pair of running shoes in terms of weight.

Originally Posted by Martin358

Can you experienced guys put a list of what should be in a first aid kit on here so we know what we should carry

In mine I have the following:

1x Celox Rapid Z Fold Gauze (partially used)
3x Celox 2g granule sachets
1x Israeli bandage
1x SWAT-T multifunction 'stretch-wrap-and-tuck' tourniquet SWAT-T™ - Stretch Wrap And Tuck Tourniquet - Products
1x roll of medical tape
A bunch of antiseptic wipes
Betadine sachets - exp 3/05
1x compeed assorted size blister plaster pack (good for minor burns as well as blisters)
2x steri-strip sachets
3x gauze pads (individually sealed)
Assortment of plasters
Morphine tablets

The non vacuum sealed items that are water sensitive I put in a zip lock bag, and it all fits into a zip top Game Gear NZ made belt pouch which is 130W x 100H x 70D.
I also keep 1/2 dozen lens wipes in there for cleaning my scope when needed.

Yea I know how good they are, I’ve got a couple of spare ones in the shed, if you want a couple and some gauze I’ll gladly send you a couple. If your keen PM and I’ll see you right

Originally Posted by hotbarrels

Yes. They are a great light weight boot. The lack the ankle support of a more rigid boot but they are like wearing a pair of running shoes in terms of weight.

Agreed,I can go all day and not even think about my feet I might get a pair of the titans as well I reckon they look the bizzo for ankle support and ultra lite as well.

Originally Posted by 7mmwsm

Regarding Celox.
We have a local first response team which I am a member of. St John provide us with a reasonably good first aid kit and training. I added glad wrap (for burns), silage tape (two inch black insulation tape) and celox to my kit. Every so often we meet up at the local St John rooms to replenish our kits. One of the St John officers spotted celox in my kit and proceeded to tear big chunks off me. He reckoned that some people "might" react to it. I think he thought I was a smart c.... when I agreed that "some" people might react to it, but everyone reacts to running out of blood.
Silage tape is very handy. I've held my self together with that stuff on numerous occasions.

@7mmwsm If it is your personal aid kit predominantly so it is on hand if you injure yourself, you could make a minor cut and see if you "react" to it. If all is good then at least you know your arse is fine and it wont do you further harm. Any regular hunting mates could also check. Then when he asks all you have to do is promise not to use it on him if he doesn't want you to.....

Mine has the following, as basic field first aid to carry everywhere. My actual one is pretty big and I could deal with someone who got mangled, say a nasty fall or a gunshot wound, but it is my work one from when I was an exploration geo. I did see some nasty injuries, especially from drill rigs. I built it after I smashed my leg in a rock fall.

This stuff, if you carry nothing else. You can close wounds like steri strips (done that when wasps forced me to jump off a cliff). You can breaks and sprains and fix failed boots. Nothing will stop blisters better. I have had one strip of this over my heel when my boots failed and it lasted two weeks in Fiordland with wet boots the entire time.


I use old school battle dressings but these Israeli bandages look very good. I will have my resident Israeli look into them.

Eye bath and a bit of saline. Really very valuable. Scratched eyes is no good. Bug legs can become embedded in your eye.

Betadine. Can't beat good old fashioned iodine for pouring through everything to keep infection out. Also make a bath from it to clean a wound.

As someone mentioned, gladwrap for burns. You want to keep the oxygen out of a burn. Oxygen is for lungs. Nothing else likes it.

Steri strips (because they are better than strapping tape and weigh nothing).

On the West Coast or Nelson/Marlborough I like a prescription for an epi pen for after a major wasp incident. Possible someone will get badly stung around the neck. It happened to me, but it was mostly the back of my neck and head, plus arms. I also fell 10m during this incident and opened my arm up (landed on scree). Kicked my boot into a face and smashed the whole nest, then just jumped off the face (better than staying with the wasps). After this I started carrying an epi pen if I could get one.

Non-adhesive and adhesive non-stick wound pads.

Paracord. Not sure if anyone would allow it taught these days, but I can make a traction splint. The last person to react positively to that was the Johannesburg ambulance officer I mentioned earlier. You can at least minimum make a stretcher from it.

None of that stuff is too heavy. Quantity depends on where you are going, who you are going with and what you plan to do. I

This is off the top of my head. Should handle burns, breaks and lacerations, your primary concerns. I also like to have a smoke grenade if I can get one. This is after having a helicopter spend ages hovering about nearby looking for me.

I'm fairly sinister when making scenarios for role play. I agree role play is awful in terms of awkwardness, but that is the point. Vastly less awful than the real thing. One of my favorites is the "your party member has slipped on rocks in the river bed and has a compound fracture of the lower leg, you were rushing because of the weather, the water is rising".

This has the modern first aid trainer completely stuffed. It is a very realistic scenario, and it requires you to stabilize the leg and move the injured person very quickly. You will need to splint that leg and whip a strong stretcher up. 25 years ago my squad of 8-12 year old boy scouts could have got this done in about 10 minutes. The modern first aid course where they fast forward though all this stuff on the training video? Maybe not so much. Cracks me up the training I got as a young kid which they would no longer teach to adults.

I have brought quite a bit off Tactical South NZ and Michael has been a please to deal with. Knows his shit imports ex. US Army legitimate in date quality and doesn't bend you over.

Originally Posted by ariki

I have brought quite a bit off Tactical South NZ and Michael has been a please to deal with. Knows his shit imports ex. US Army legitimate in date quality and doesn't bend you over.

I see that he is selling QuickClot. Be careful of this product. When I was researching stuff for my FAK a couple of years ago there were a number of reports of people receiving chemical burns and permanent scaring from this product. Testing also showed that Celox was faster acting than QuickClot.

Wow, great story, and I don't think anyone would disparage what is in fact an accident.

Especially since you had the proper First Aid kit with you. Had you not, that little boner (pun intended) might have earned you a gentle poke in the ribs (sorry, nother pun)

Here's all the advice you need (attached) from the experts at the New Zealand Resuscitation Council. It backs up a lot of what you guys have said.

Originally Posted by ubique

Another one to be very wary of in the outdoors is the very real possibility of burns. As above, hands up if you haven't accidentally burnt yourself, especially out camping/ hunting. Among other dressing options, I've started carrying a half sized roll of glad wrap, squashed flat and full of other first aid stuff, its main benefit it protects a burn, including from air, and it won't adhere to a wound. In a stretch its also good for holding guts in if one of your dogs gets gored real good by a decent tusker

Just a reminder: Lay it on as a strip, don't wrap it around anything because swelling happens.