What's in your First Aid Kit? List it up.

I have a few Adventure Medical Kit first aid kits that have been added to over the years along with a SAM Splint that goes along with me just about everywhere.

Besides the basics do you have anything in your kits that most people don't think about putting in a first aid kit?

Sutures and suture kits have started to cross my mind along with some of the medical grade superglue like Dermabond, but would I really need sutures?

I always have my left over procedural presciptions in there too (Norco, Vicoden, Flexeril) just in case of a serious injury for a patients comfort.

Personal kit has Numask, olaes bandage, drugs, some basic finger and face bleed bandages & steri strips, Sam splint with 2 triangle bandages, clean and sterilize wipes, gloves, EMT shears. H2O. And training. Sat communication device. Not all in the same kit/bag of course.

Carry an awl and heavy twine/fish line for gear repair. If you REALLY want sutures, a bit of alcohol or fire for steri and Bob”a your safe word.

And search JONG :)

In my SAR bag I carried the basics along with an Israeli bandage/ETD, some sort of hemo dressing, NPA, good shears, glucose gels, a few liquid IVs, and a half dozen voile straps of various sizes.

Check out ZZIPS as an alternative to sutures. If you want to go crazy, you could throw in some chest seals and a CAT tourniquet.

I've got an adventure medical trauma kit it the truck.

I think the only thing I've added to that was an extra bottle of pain meds, some quickclot and the stash of nitrile gloves (good for greasy/gross things as well as first aid).

I carry a much smaller kit on most hikes. That has another quickclot it it, plush some blister care meterial.

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Originally Posted by stealurface831

Check out ZZIPS as an alternative to sutures.

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I might add some of these.

Also some larger zip ties as general use items.

There are many threads on the same subject. Do we really need another one?
Maybe so:
If you're going to suture wounds make sure you have copious amounts of sterile water or saline to irrigate the wound first. Boiled water works--let it cool down. (Or not if you want to stop the bleeding like they did it in the 18th century.) That's more important than suturing. Otherwise you're just sewing the germs into the wound. Better off just bandaging and returning to civilization.

Everything else I have to say can be found in one of the other threads. Search padded room and tech talk.

Lots of opiates and an InReach.

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Originally Posted by Meadow Skipper

Lots of opiates and an InReach.

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I was thinking "ether and a pistol," but perhaps that's overly dark.

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Originally Posted by mtnjam

I have a few Adventure Medical Kit first aid kits that have been added to over the years along with a SAM Splint that goes along with me just about everywhere.

Besides the basics do you have anything in your kits that most people don't think about putting in a first aid kit?

Sutures and suture kits have started to cross my mind along with some of the medical grade superglue like Dermabond, but would I really need sutures?

I always have my left over procedural presciptions in there too (Norco, Vicoden, Flexeril) just in case of a serious injury for a patients comfort.

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Something we learned in WFR training is to pack your first aid kit for your activity that day. A kit for a summer day hike is going to look different than a 5 day hut trip in winter which will look different than a 3 day alpine climb at 10,000' elevation. Think about potential MOI for a given environment and activity. I'd say some Benadryl and Imodium are usually in my kit if I'm going overnight or longer.

^^Good advice. For example when I'm hunting I always bring a Trauma Pak quick clot for gunshot wounds.

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Originally Posted by yeahman

^^Good advice. For example when I'm hunting I always bring a Trauma Pak quick clot for gunshot wounds.

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Sounds like you hunt in Michigan. (A gsw from a high velocity rifle is one of the few recreational situations I can think of in which a clotting agent would be useful.)

About the immodium--diarrhea is how the body gets rid of intestinal infection. Anti-diarrheals can make it worse.

Since I'm already posting in this thread I'll say it again--learn how to tape an ankle, take a couple of rolls of athletic tape, a razor unless your a sadist/masochist, and you can turn an evacuation into a walk out. Also, it's not just the activity but the remoteness that determines the kit.

i discovered "adhesive wound strips" in my first aid kit in my truck
those work pretty dang well for closing a significant cut

I used to keep an epipen in my pack when we went on scout backpacking trips... Couple kids had peanut allergies.. not mine, but just thought having one handy just in case couldn't hurt. These were older kids, not cub scouts so their parents weren't always along.

The scout leader was a former pharmacist and pharmacologist at Glaxo at the time. He seemed to think it was a good idea. Never needed it though... thankfully.

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Originally Posted by SumJongGuy

I used to keep an epipen in my pack when we went on scout backpacking trips... Couple kids had peanut allergies.. not mine, but just thought having one handy just in case couldn't hurt. These were older kids, not cub scouts so their parents weren't always along.

The scout leader was a former pharmacist and pharmacologist at Glaxo at the time. He seemed to think it was a good idea. Never needed it though... thankfully.

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Better than a good idea. Kid died of peanut allergy at Camp Sacramento a few years ago, despite the kitchen being notified of her allergy, depsite her physician father being on the trip, despite getting epi. Peanut allergy is one of the worst. Same applies if anyone on the trip has any other allergies other than seasonal pollen allergies--allergies to stings of course. Not necessary if no one has a known allergy--the chance of a life threatening reaction on first exposure is minimal. Can't hurt to have some benadryl (diphenhydramine) along though. And if someone does have a significant reaction on first exposure it's time to bail because if they get stung or whatever a second time they could be in serious trouble.
And there's a special place in hell for people who pooh pooh food and sitng allergies (not talking about the kind of food "allergies" that make your kid stupid or whatever--that's on the parents' DNA.)

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Originally Posted by old goat

Sounds like you hunt in Michigan. (A gsw from a high velocity rifle is one of the few recreational situations I can think of in which a clotting agent would be useful.)

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I've seen chainsaw wounds and puncture injuries that make me glad to have quickclot handy.

Knife injuries would be next on my list. If you're prepared for the worst the worst is less likely to happen.

I've also had to hit the ground as a bullet went overhead, so you're correct.

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Originally Posted by old goat

(A gsw from a high velocity rifle is one of the few recreational situations I can think of in which a clotting agent would be useful.)

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Funny you say that. The only time I used any was when an off duty cop shot herself in the leg while trying to shoot a rattlesnake.

There are times when you can use quikclot and times when you need to use quikclot. The former greatly outnumber the latter. Chain saw I can see--but I think we're talking about wilderness/bc kits. So trail building crew. Simple puncture wounds, including low velocity gsws can and should be controled with pressure. Like was said earlier, tailor your kit for the trip. The great majority of serious bc recreational injuries are going to be blunt--fractures and internal injuries. Be prepared to splint the former and pray help arrives soon enough for the latter.

recreate with an ER/ anestitist dude , before an activity I asked him if he had any 1st aid and he said

" ya man, last aid too "

Local guy got shot by his hunting partner as they were getting their rifles out of the truck in the K-Mart parking lot, where they met to go hunting. Should not have been loaded, obviously, but he shot the guy in his femoral artery and he bled out in the parking lot before emergency help could arrive. Aside from the fact that the deceased was a local sports-medicine physician whom I'd been to several times, it kind of opened my eyes to why you might want to have a Quickclot in your hunting first aid kit. And as somebody pointed out, knives. The knives these days with disposable razor blades are insanely sharp, and when you're all hopped up on adrenaline and it's getting dark etc. etc. etc., slicing yourself badly while trying to field dress an animal is a real concern and a Quickclot could be needed in a worst case scenario. But I never bring one backpacking or mountain biking, just a basic kit.

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Originally Posted by yeahman

But I never bring one backpacking or mountain biking, just a basic kit.

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Can easily eat shit off a bike and puncture something important where you can bleed out.

I like to keep rolls of cling wrap and aluminum foil on hand for those pesky double compound sucking chest fracture wounds that are so popular among the kids these days.

If not it always comes in handy for the grill.

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Originally Posted by SB

I like to keep rolls of cling wrap and aluminum foil on hand for those pesky double compound sucking chest fracture wounds that are so popular among the kids these days.

If not it always comes in handy for the grill.

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You might consider adding vaseline to your armamentarium since it has multiple uses.
But you shouldn't have to worry about large sucking chest wounds unless you recreate in areas under artillery bombardment

We occasionally find unexploded mortar and artillery rounds left over from WWII training but luckily not very often any moar.

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Originally Posted by old goat

You might consider adding vaseline to your armamentarium since it has multiple uses.
But you shouldn't have to worry about large sucking chest wounds unless you recreate in areas under artillery bombardment

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Every ski patrol refresher I’ve been to spends time on sucking chest wounds. People must impale their lungs on broken branches all the time.

Every dummy I’ve ever applied an occlusive bandage to has made it, so…. I’m fully trained to deal with that eventuality.

Speaking of impaling yourself... When you're elk hunting off-trail through the beetlekill downfall that is everywhere around western Montana now, slipping and impaling yourself is a real possibility. It's actually scary climbing through this shit. You can try to hunt elsewhere but that eliminates a lot of good elk country.
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