Thread: Whats in your First Aid Kit?

https://pracmednz.com/collections/fi...32076474187879

And do a decent course that teaches MARCH and involves scenarios.

Pretty much anything else can wait for help to arrive.

My first aid/emergency kit. It all fits in a small pouch (16.5 x 11.5 x 7cm).

- Aspirin
- Codeine
- Ibuprofen
- Paracetamol
- Dextrose tablets
- Aquatabs
- Celox
- Gauze
- Betadine
- Elastoplast
- Dermabond
- Surgical tape
- Knife (spare)
- Headtorch/batteries (spare)
- Matches/firelighter/tinder
- Foil sleeping bag
- PLB

Originally Posted by DavidGunn

A roll of insulation tape, panadol and a tampon (to plug the hole if I shoot you)

Tha the Tampon will kill you faster than the hole you plug....They are designed to absorb liquids. Absorbtion is NOT what a penetration wound needs. It needs the bleeding stopped and stopped fast. There are about 7 pints of blood in your system, lose 1 and you are in deep trouble, lose three and your outcome is not likely to be a good one. There is a reason emergency services and combat medics do not carry these. Carry the right gear...Your life is the one that will potentially depend on it. That first list from @hotbarrels is a good one, but with one small addition; Get the training on how to use the gear properly, and when to use each of them TQs have their place and should be in the kit, but knowing when and when not to use them is every bit as important.

I can suggest a training provider that I have used (and that I am not affiliated with, ) if you like.

Originally Posted by 7mmwsm

That's pretty well priced for what's in it.
50 mm silage tape is very useful in a first aid kit.
I was a fan of celox type products. But apparently they can get into your system and cause blockages where they are not required.
Pracmed's stop the bleed course is very worthwhile.

Absolutely.100% I carry their IFAS kit as part of my gear.

Antihistamines are a must in the South Island, I got stung a couple of times last week by wasps hunting and had a nasty reaction, a red/rash area bigger than my phone on my thigh from one that was itchy as shit, took a few days to go away, wasps are bastards.

A few cotton buds nothing worse when you have a little buzzard in your ear, Also a little container of vaseline. I also take a tube of stop sting? its a tube of cream to put on stings, i got nailed last year at work on my head this stuff work a treat

An unopened bottle of eyedrops or some of those individual tubes you can get. Not a necessity but if you get a scratch or smoke or some other irritation in an eye can give enough relief to have a good sleep.

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Similar to some of the stuff on here, decent pain relief (tramadol) enough to last 24 hours at least then if we have to wait for extraction it will take the edge off. Anti-histamines, stuff to deal with wounds. Some dia-stop sachets, thankfully never needed them. One of the most useful things has been a simple splinter pick, not a major issue but quite satisfying to dig them out if required.

I told my doctor I hunt and he gave me a prescription for a bottle of 75mg Diclofenac (voltaren), also carry antihistamine, superglue and duct tape. Oh, and I always hunt with a paramedic.

Whatever you take - know how to use it. Couldn't recommend enough the PracMed courses. They also do a IFAK which though pricey, could save your life (or limb). Otherwise there are some good suggestions on here, especially the list earlier. But would really stress the knowledge aspect, for any first aid kit!

Originally Posted by 7mmwsm

I was a fan of celox type products. But apparently they can get into your system and cause blockages where they are not required.

@7mmwsm This would be the case if you are using loose Celox granules. Throw them away. Not only for the reason you state, but also because they are hard to apply to a bleeding wound, unless you have them in a syringe and you inject them into the wound cavity and slap a gauze on real quick. The syringe applicator is designed for gun shot wounds on the battlefield.

The Celox impregnated gauze have no loose granules. The gauze is fairly stiff with the impregnation, but nothing comes off it when flexed. Based on my personal experience having punctured my leg, I was amazed at how quick the gauze stopped the flow of blood. In under 60 seconds with hand pressure applied to the gauze, I could take my hand away without the wound starting to bleed again and the gauze remained in place freeing up both hands to apply tape over the top. Based on this experience, I would now have the confidence to get a Celox gauze over a wound and apply hand pressure, then take a couple of minutes to catch your breath and think things through, planning your next cause of action while giving the Celox a chance to do its thing. If you are administering first aid to someone else, do the same - get a celox gauze over the wound and get them to apply hand pressure freeing you up to work things through in your head.

For pain relief, everyone should carry paracetamol. There are very few people that can't take it and if that's you, then you are probably not going to be hunting in the hills.

Next is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug. Should be avoided if you have kidney problems, severe dehydration or gastritis (and one or two other things of course), but a few doses would very rarely cause a problem in an otherwise healthy individual. On paper, diclofenac is a "better" drug than ibuprofen, but you just take more ibuprofen to have the same effect. Ibuprofen is cheap and you can buy it in a supermarket. Buy the generic preparations, there is no benefit in paying extra for branded products like Nurofen.

Next up are the weak opioids, that is codeine and tramadol. Codeine is metabolised to morphine in the body. Main side effects are drowsiness and constipation. Up until recently, you could buy low dose codeine tablets (mixed with paracetamol) over the counter, but that is no longer the case. Now it's prescription only. Tramadol is a funny one, works great for some people, just makes others feel like crap. Has a few drugs interactions, but since you will need a prescription for it, your GP should take that in to account. I think most sensible doctors would write a one off small prescription for these drugs if you explained that they were for emergencies only.

Finally, there are the strong opioids, in oral form these included sevredol (morphine) and oxycodone. Good luck in getting a prescription for those!




Disclaimer: medical advice that you receive online is worth what you pay for it.

Originally Posted by 7mmwsm

A lot of medical experts are very anti TQ's.
Apparently no one has died or lost a limb (that they wouldn't have lost because of the injury) because of a TQ which has been applied correctly. But plenty of people have died because they haven't been used.

tornquis I asume you mean?????
having done outdoor first aid course late last year and sat through 2 hr refresher...last weekend I CAN CATAGORICALLY STATE they are in widespread use and after BT an amok in CHCH last year,police pretty much all carry them now...couple of things,only tight enought to stop blood flow.....put ABOVE wound/between it and heart....yes folks do get that bit wrong...and write on forehead WHEN it was applied....oh and DONT stop holding it when the big white bus with flashy lights arrives....

Some of the gear I carry, in a waterproof ziploc inside a sturdy nylon pouch includes:
Good shears, a Benchmade rescue hook, because nothing sucks like trying to cut tough, thick fabric with a blunt pair of scissors that typically come in a fak, except maybe slicing and dicing your patient with a sharp hunting knife while doing so.
I usually carry several crepe and gauze bandages, because they are really handy - you can use them to clean wounds, splint with them, and a range of other jobs.
For burns, I have a few metres of good old kitchen clingfilm folded I to a ziploc bag.
A couple of foil blankets - also versatile for other jobs, like an emergency groundsheet - I found out they are slippery as hell and quite noisy as well.
Tube of betadine because it is awesome at disinfecting.
Meds - non script painkillers and ibuprofen, antihistamine, loperamide (Imodium) for the runs, because that isn't much fun to be around.
And always make room for a couple of 100ml bottles of saline and an eye cup. Rinsing shit and grit out of your eyes can be so much more difficult without that 5g piece of kit!
A splinter remover (yes, they exist!) is fantastic when you need it, and weighs half of nothing. Much better than a needle, although I carry one or two of them and good sharp tweezers.
Other than that, critical PPE items include 4 nitrite disposable gloves, some alcohol swabs, and a CPR face shield although I really hope I never have to use that. A few plasters (tough fabric ones) and a few other bits and pieces and I'm good to go. It isn't elaborate. I believe that first aid is as much about using what you know as what you have. If you have a 900 piece, 10kg rapid response kit (with solar powered defibrillator and flashing red lights) sitting in the hut while you are 3km away with nothing, you better be good at improvising!

Use gloves for cooking handling hot water.
Nothing worse than burns going septic.
Prevention is the best course.