I am putting together some first aid, ifak/blowout kits for the family and need some inspiration/education. Show off your kits! Share some knowledge! Attached File

Put all that stuff in 2 ziploc baggies and your set.

Oh yeah one more thing, make sure the family knows what everything is and when/how to use it properly

I don’t see basic injury stuff like gauze pads and bandaids. Might want to add some of that. I like seeing the pressure dressings. Most under rated item that should be in all first aid kits IMO. You might want to add a tourniquet. It’s a rather over rated item but when you really need one, only a tourniquet will do. You can get the Recon Medical tourniquets on Amazon for a lot less than a NAR and they work just as well. I also like to have CPR face masks for car and home kits. I prefer the actual mask not the cheap face shield.

Now get a good bag to carry the kit in and you’re all set.

I like to bag up all the gauze and bandaids in small ziplock type baggies. Keeps everything nice and dry and dust free. I buy the baggies on eBay in bulk.

The Israeli bandages are perfectly fine, but I prefer the Modular Bandages. The velcro strips make it a lot easier to get tight, and the included gauze and pressure applicator makes a more compact package. Only drawback is it's bulky.

Edit: I second the Recon Medical tourniquet. I had the opportunity to apply both in training and prefer the Recon Med.

This is all I have used on the ranch for the last 15 years....
I do have some israeli bandages in my go bag.

I don't carry an IFAK, but there's a small one on my battle belt.

has a Tq, 14G angiocath, and combat gauze.  Same stuff I carried on me when deployed. Everything else can be improvised for the few minutes it takes to either get to a real FAK (house and both cars have decent kits) or EMS arrival.

I don’t have a pic of a stick, some duct tape and some superglue. As a rural EMT, training trumps gear

My vehicle and house kits.

I guess I should caveat this post with the required pre-recorded slogans necessary in every single thread about this that comes up.

* make sure you get training in all the equipment
* dont buy TPT needles, they are for doctors and scientists only

FYI - Use the code “MAY25” to save 25% on products in the Community Preparedness category at NAR.

All the training in the world won’t help when you have nothing to treat an injury with. Yes training is very important but those with training also know enough, thanks to their training, what medical supplies they need to have. Hospitals are full of highly trained medical people....and also full of medical equipment and supplies.

I have three kits for field use and some other stuff that usually stays at home.

Kit 1: This is just black mag pouch with contents stuffed in there and a TQ on the side. I usually keep this one in my range bag. It is fairly limited/minimal.
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Kit 2: This is an ATS insert for an M4 double-mag pouch that I keep on a chest rig. TQ is near on rig. Also fairly minimal.
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Continued...
Kit 3: This is basically a SIRK refill kit with a couple extras in a tear-away molle pouch, not currently mounted to anything.
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At-Home Kits:
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Most of my supplies have come from The Tactical Medic, very quick delivery, even in the late unpleasantness.

When setting up a first aid kit, one thing I think most people forget is.....if the injury is severe, only a surgeon has a chance of saving someone's life.  Then, after surgery without modern medicine/antibiotics/post surgery care, you'll likely be dying of infection.  A first aid kit is to preserve life until you can be medivaced in cases of severe injury.  For example, if someone has a heart attack, an aspirin, nitro if he has it, reduced physical exertion, and possibly CPR might preserve someone's life long enough to get an ambulance/air ambulance on scene.  You and I aren't going to treat someone with a heart attack with our well equipped first aid kit and have them return to full duty.  If someone takes a gun shot wound, you and I should be able to stop the bleeding and slow down death, but if the GSW is anywhere in the vicinity of vital organs, only a surgeon has a chance of saving the person's life.  If a person is bleeding from a femoral artery bleed, a tourniquet should slow down death but only a surgeon is going to be able to have a chance to fix the injury and save the person's life.  

A first aid kit that can preserve someone's life long enough for a medivac doesn't have to be very big.  In my opinion, any good first aid kit should also contain enough stuff to treat relatively minor injuries because those are the most common type of injuries that need treatment.  I think most first aid kits are bigger than needed.  

My daughter is a RN.

That’s nice. Is she ALWAYS available to treat you. What supplies does she have to actually treat you with if you should need it? If you get hurt when she’s not around, what then?

I have a bunch of Combat Gauze, tourniquets, and Israeli bandages, etc (from extra IFAKs when we were shutting down bases in Iraq in 2011).

My question is how much of it is still good now 10 years later, which also makes me second guess spending a bunch of money on stuff that will sit in an IFAK for 5 years and then get tossed and spend the money again.

Does this stuff really expire or is it one of those "best by xxxx, but you can still use it after that, we just don't guarantee it anymore" things?

I keep the vacuum sealed stuff and toss it when there is air in the package regardless of date.  TQ's dont "expire" as long as they havent been exposed to the elements, including sunlight.

After the expiration date I usually count combat gauze as just "gauze" versus being a hemostatic clotting agent, unless there is air in the package, then I toss it as well.

Think of it as an insurance policy, yea it may cost a bit every couple years; but it's better to have new, non-expired gear that's in good shape. With my old stuff I use it for training and familiarization.

With the litigious society we live in, I wouldn't want expired equipment being used against me if I decided to help someone else out and then they sued. Even with Good Samaritan law; I don't want to test it.

Has anyone bought everything separately and made their own kit? Is it possible to do it cheaper and better than buying a put together kit?

In my opinion....yes. Premade kits have a bunch of crap no one will likely ever use. I can make a basic kit up for about $60 or so including the pouch that will take care of the majority of your first aid needs.

I have multiple ifaks,  plus a few trauma kits, what I dont see in any of your kits is narcan, I keep one in my truck, and one in my cls bag, you can get it over the counter at Walmart for 18.00, I figure it's worth it if I can save a life one day.

If you associate with heroin/opiate users and actually care about them then maybe it’s worth it. Personally, I would never administer narcan as a non first responder. I work in LE and do have narcan but it’s only for potential accidental exposures of coworkers (extremely rare). I don’t use it on junkies.

A pair of NPA's and a pocket bvm would be better and safer than giving a random person narcan.

I see OPA's do you have NPA's? A bvm?

Just did a two day course with an SF medic. Granted, it was directed toward trauma management. i.e. gunshots, IED, etc. But if you look up the statistics of how many people die of preventable blood loss, it's pretty eye opening.

He preached TQs from the get go. Practice until you can get them on as fast as possible. We were drilled all weekend and most people were under 15 seconds on the leg, faster on the arms.

TQs are like a gun. When you need one, you need one now. You want the best one you can get. You need to be as proficient with it as you can be. Nothing else comes close as a substitute. And it truly is a matter of life or death.

Said the coagulant products are nice but not worth the money especially since they expire. Knowledge and practice of how to pack a bleeder is way more important than the celox or whatever product you choose.

Same with israeli bandages. They're nice but ACE and proper gauze do the same, again, given practice.

NP airways have such a small use indication, he doesn't carry them.

Chest seals and, (to beat a broken horse) if you're trained, a decompression needle are worth the space/weight.

Hmmm,  I work for a medevac flight company that does scene calls in Alaska.  So we have both major trauma and medical.  Any unconscious patient needs their airway protected, the gag reflex is one of the last to go making OPA's less desirable.

Not gonna argue with a guy whose job it is.

The logic, as laid out by this particular instructor:

Establish airway by placing in recovery position which works the majority of the time. Unconscious patients having issues with their tongue blocking the airway get it pulled forward and safety pinned to their cheek/lip. If they're conscious, they'll let you know this step is unnecessary.

A patient with enough facial damage that they can't maintain an airway needs intubated or NPA. The likelihood that the injury is just significant and in the right area that the steps above won't work but an NPA will are so small, in his opinion, that it doesn't justify carrying the NPA in is limited amount of space and weight.

In an ambulance or helo, I'd bet he would be all for having that piece of kit.

He goes straight from "If recovery and keeping the tongue out of the way doesn't do it" to "Then there must be significant enough injury to the facial/sinus/neck area that I don't have time nor devices enough on my body to take care of it. We go straight to a trach.

This is all based on "This guy has been shot and or blown up and is actively dying, RFN."

There were other concessions made toward that end, too. He didn't worry too much about spinal stabilization or injuries because....if you don't do something right now, he's dead anyway either from his injuries or the ones you're about to receive from further incoming fire.

Lots of stuff along that line of thinking. No clean packing material? Use what you have. All wounds are dirty and will be cleaned in the OR. That's the doc's job. If you do something and they make it to the hospital alive, you did good. If they don't, they're not going to complain to you. etc.

It was an interesting weekend.