Fields_mj
Silver Member
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2021
- Messages
- 160
- Location
- Central Indiana
- Tractor
- Ford 1710, Kubota F2880, White FB16
I put together trauma kits for our house and vehicles a few years ago. I do some part time work as a firearms instructor, hunt a lot, and run chainsaws quite a bit. My wife is a RN. Over the course of about 12 months, she was first on scene to 3 different car wrecks, 2 with fatalities, and a guy in our hunting group lost one of his golf buddies to an inadvertent self inflicted knife wound to the groin. It made me realize that it would REALLY suck not to have a couple of basic tools available to save someone's life, especially if it was a mine, a friend, or family member. Statistically, you are a LOT more likely to need a torniquet than a firearm, so I made made it a priority to have those tools accessible.
My kits contain at least one torniquet, a 4" Israeli bandage, at least 2 rolls of gauze (ROLLS not squares), trauma shears, one role of quick clot gauze, some tubes of quick clot powder, 2 packages of 4x4 gauze squares, a roll of cloth athletic tape, and some super glue. In the ones in my car, truck, and range bag there are also a pair of baggies and some rolled up duct tape to make chest seals with. I need to add something for glucose. The athletic tape, 4x4 gauze, and super glue are replacements for band aids. I've intentionally limited everything else to things that will hurt when you use them, but will keep blood in your body until you get to the hospital. When the adrenaline hits and someone is likely to blead out in the next 20 sec, I don't want to have to sort through a bunch of creams, stents, lotions, and cleansers to find the tools I need. Even the gauze, 4x4s, tape, and quick clot powder are segregated into their own area to keep them out of the way. Trauma kits are not first aid kits.
A couple of notes. 1. Its not a good idea to pack a wound with gauze squares. It's very easy for the ER team to miss one when they are trying to put you back together, and that's a very common source for serious infection. Use gauze rolls because its all in one piece. Even if you have to use more than one roll, the ER team is less likely to miss a strip of gauze that's 3 feet long than they are a 4" square tucked back into the corner of a wound somewhere. 1B Its called wound packing for a reason. Its not possible to pack a wound with too much gauze, but its entirely possible not to pack the wound with enough gauze. Pack it tight! 2. Cheap torniquets are better than no torniquets, but not by a whole lot. We buy cheap ones to use for training, and they often break. Because I needed several, I started out with cheap ones off Amazon, and then replaced them one by one with good ones (CAT or SOF-T). Also be aware of where you buy them from. Just because the Amazon seller says that its a CAT torniquet doesn't mean that its not a cheap Chinese knock off. This is something worth buying from a reputable supplier. 3. Medical tape doesn't stick to something that's covered in blood, sweat and dirt but duct tape does. I've had several people swear that their surgical tape will stick to anything. I'll take them out on the range in the middle of august, and after a few hours worth of drills, I'll have them try their wonder tape on my arm. None of it ever sticks, but duct tape will still pull the hair off my arm every time.
My kits contain at least one torniquet, a 4" Israeli bandage, at least 2 rolls of gauze (ROLLS not squares), trauma shears, one role of quick clot gauze, some tubes of quick clot powder, 2 packages of 4x4 gauze squares, a roll of cloth athletic tape, and some super glue. In the ones in my car, truck, and range bag there are also a pair of baggies and some rolled up duct tape to make chest seals with. I need to add something for glucose. The athletic tape, 4x4 gauze, and super glue are replacements for band aids. I've intentionally limited everything else to things that will hurt when you use them, but will keep blood in your body until you get to the hospital. When the adrenaline hits and someone is likely to blead out in the next 20 sec, I don't want to have to sort through a bunch of creams, stents, lotions, and cleansers to find the tools I need. Even the gauze, 4x4s, tape, and quick clot powder are segregated into their own area to keep them out of the way. Trauma kits are not first aid kits.
A couple of notes. 1. Its not a good idea to pack a wound with gauze squares. It's very easy for the ER team to miss one when they are trying to put you back together, and that's a very common source for serious infection. Use gauze rolls because its all in one piece. Even if you have to use more than one roll, the ER team is less likely to miss a strip of gauze that's 3 feet long than they are a 4" square tucked back into the corner of a wound somewhere. 1B Its called wound packing for a reason. Its not possible to pack a wound with too much gauze, but its entirely possible not to pack the wound with enough gauze. Pack it tight! 2. Cheap torniquets are better than no torniquets, but not by a whole lot. We buy cheap ones to use for training, and they often break. Because I needed several, I started out with cheap ones off Amazon, and then replaced them one by one with good ones (CAT or SOF-T). Also be aware of where you buy them from. Just because the Amazon seller says that its a CAT torniquet doesn't mean that its not a cheap Chinese knock off. This is something worth buying from a reputable supplier. 3. Medical tape doesn't stick to something that's covered in blood, sweat and dirt but duct tape does. I've had several people swear that their surgical tape will stick to anything. I'll take them out on the range in the middle of august, and after a few hours worth of drills, I'll have them try their wonder tape on my arm. None of it ever sticks, but duct tape will still pull the hair off my arm every time.
