Posted: 7/12/2010 6:48:16 PM EDT
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Hey guys. This last weekend I ended up having to take my 2.5 year old to the ER. Our friendly neighborhood construction company had decided to leave some dust covered bailing wire half buried in some grass near my wife's home. I was walking with my son when he tripped and got tangled in it. He started screaming but I thought he had just skinned his hands or arms when he fell until I noticed the blood all over his shorts. The bailing wire managed to make a pretty deep cut right where his thumb connects to the palm of his hand. Luckily we weren't more than 25 yards from his mom's house and I quickly carried him over to the garage, keeping pressure on the cut with my free hand. Trying to manage my son while trying to explain what was going on to my clueless soon-to-be-ex-wife was stressful and the only thing I ended up with was a brand new cleaning rag from the garage to use on my son's hand. We only live about 10 minutes away from a brand new hospital, so it wasn't too bad; my little guy ended up with three stitches and thankfully didn't have to get a tetanus shot since he recently had his boosters.
The whole situation got me thinking. I have some GI Field bandages in my car, but that's about the extent to first aid things that I have when I travel. I recently picked up a Jumbo Versipack to act as my son's day/diaper back for when he's with me. I'll also use it as a personal back when he's not around. Considering the thing has so many damn pockets, I'd like to stuff some first aid goodies in there. I've looked at various IFAKs on here and websites like ITS Tactical, but for what situations I'm preparing for I don't think I really need items pertaining to sucking chest wounds or collapsed lungs. What I would like is a kit designed around minor to medium injuries: playground boos-boos, small to medium lacerations, 1st-2nd degree burns, and such. Obvious items I'm going to throw in are some band-aids of various sizes (probably around 20 total), aspirin/tylenol/ibuprofen, 1-2 Israeli bandages or GI field bandages, 1 roll of ACE Bandage, a pair of nitrile gloves, hand sanitizer, and antiseptic cream like neosporin. I'll probably throw in a tourniquet as a worst-case-scenario item and would like to aid some sort of hemostatic bandage, either a QuikClot or CELOX, but I don't really know which to go with. They both seem to do the same thing but use different chemicals to work. I've also seen the CELOX bandages advertised as helping with 1st and 2nd degree burns. Well, any advice would be greatly appreciated. Like I said, I'm not really looking for a combat IFAK or an "Oh geez, I just got shot twice and hit by an IED" kit. I would just like something a little more useful than a drugstore first aid kit filled with band aids and ace wraps. |
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Sorry to hear about your son, glad he's not hurt badly. Rescue Essentials has an affordable, basic first aid kit that may be a great starter for what you're looking for: http://www.rescue-essentials.com/Individual_First_Aid_Kit_I_p/30-0440.htm Add some Quikclot and whatever else you want, pretty easy. |
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Quoted:
Sorry to hear about your son, glad he's not hurt badly. Rescue Essentials has an affordable, basic first aid kit that may be a great starter for what you're looking for: http://www.rescue-essentials.com/Individual_First_Aid_Kit_I_p/30-0440.htm Add some Quikclot and whatever else you want, pretty easy. Thank you for your concern. It's the second time he's been to the ER in his short life. Last year I was camping with my family and a friend of my wife's. They decided to bring their dog with them which I hadn't planned out. It was a rather rowdy dog (a fairly large mutt that thought it was a chihuahua) and long story short, it somehow managed to split my sons lips in half. I should have learned my lesson then. But anyway, thanks for the links! I had been looking at ChinookMed and was having a hard time really looking at their kits. The small kit you suggested looks great for a start. I think if I order two (one for my bag, one for the car) I should have a decent basis to start of off. I tooled around the website and am fairly confident I'll add a package of Celox trauma gauze, 2 Israeli bandages, and NAR CAT to each and I should have something that will deal with most everyday injuries and anything else that comes along that I could aid in fixing. I'm not an EMT or anything, I just know basic first responder stuff from being in the Army, so trying to stitch and give IVs is a little out of my league. Keeping the kid's cuts and scrapes clean and covered so he doesn't have to look at them or possibly giving someone else that extra time needed for the EMS or someone more knowledgeable to get there is all I need right now. Does anyone else have any suggestions? I'd really like to hear some opinions on QuikClot vs. CELOX, too. It's seems like CELOX might be a better item. |
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Mentioning QuikClot will bring the "heat" (no pun intended) pretty quickly.
All I am going to say is I've seen it work miracles...I am not a trained medical responder and as such, I have to stick with the more basic medical tools...and QC is one of them IMO. It's a fast and easy way for an untrained (as in not a doctor, not an EMT, not a FF, not a combat medic) to stop catastrophic blood flow ESPECIALY WHEN IT'S YOUR BLOOD FLOW which makes time and simplicity essential. There is a reason why we have different MOSs...mine is NOT in the medical field so saying "get training" doesn't apply...everyone gets basic Combat LifeSaver (CLS) training so I consider that untrained. Of course the standard "to be used only by first responders and EMTs" disclaimer applies along with YMMV. |
| I'm in the process of building a nice FAK, currently it requires my truck to haul it around. So, I've also started an IFAK for the war belt, small and enough goodies to handle a GSW. After reading the news yesterday, people killed in their work place where they are not allowed to carry, I've decided to build a second IFAK and I'm making it part of my EDC. |
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Does anyone else have any suggestions? I'd really like to hear some opinions on QuikClot vs. CELOX, too. It's seems like CELOX might be a better item.
Take a look HERE for a comparison of Hemostatic Agents. It was done by the United States Army Institute of Surgical Research (USAISR). They have no vested interested in any companies, they just want the material that will save soldiers lives. You can open the chart/study and save it as a jpeg. In a nutshell - QuickClot ACS Sucks, even normal rolled gauze does a better job at controlling bleeding. The original QuickClot works and works well even though it was not looked at in this study. It works but you get the heat generation. Heat generation is not big deal if you had a life threatening hemorrhage, but people were using just because they had it for venous bleeding that can be controlled by simple direct pressure. That's why doc's hated it because they had to then deal with burns that were not necessary because people did not have the training to recognize when they need to use it vs. when they did not need to use it. So Z-Medica redid the product and come up with ACS and ACS+, no heat but it also does not work. Combat Gauze or Celox is what you want if you choose to carry a Hemostatic Agent. Get some training on the basics of First Aid, Learn Good Wound Packing (NOT taught in First Aid, EMT or even some Paramedic Schools), learn CPR/AED. On the website above there are other good tips and tools to help you in looking for the right product and training. Stay Safe. |
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I could use feedback on my kit so I will try to get pics and an inventory tonight. Mine is not really intended to be a trama kit but instead a decent basic first aid kit with stuff that I might need for family stuff. I actually have two kits, one at home next to my BOB which is a much bigger kit and the second which is attached to my GHB that stays in the car so I always have it with me.
I'll post tonight, |
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I will clarify my statement: I've seen all 3 forms work at least very well but since the ACS and Gauze are the only current issue products, when I said QC I meant ACS and Gauze.
I can't get the PDF to load but I am surprised at the (alleged) poor showing of the ACS...hard to believe it is not at least as effective as the gauze...perhaps the sponge is too big and they ended up putting in on top/over the wound instead of in it. I know of one first hand ACS save where the person self-treated by stuffing the ACS into the wound himself. |
| Well I should clarify that I am strictly looking at the gauze type hemo-agents. In a stressful situation I can see myself shaking powder all over the place and not necessarily onto the wound. Gauze would just be easier to administer and for someone to remove from my viewpoint. |
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Quoted:
Does anyone else have any suggestions? I'd really like to hear some opinions on QuikClot vs. CELOX, too. It's seems like CELOX might be a better item.
Take a look HERE for a comparison of Hemostatic Agents. It was done by the United States Army Institute of Surgical Research (USAISR). They have no vested interested in any companies, they just want the material that will save soldiers lives. You can open the chart/study and save it as a jpeg. In a nutshell - QuickClot ACS Sucks, even normal rolled gauze does a better job at controlling bleeding. The original QuickClot works and works well even though it was not looked at in this study. It works but you get the heat generation. Heat generation is not big deal if you had a life threatening hemorrhage, but people were using just because they had it for venous bleeding that can be controlled by simple direct pressure. That's why doc's hated it because they had to then deal with burns that were not necessary because people did not have the training to recognize when they need to use it vs. when they did not need to use it. So Z-Medica redid the product and come up with ACS and ACS+, no heat but it also does not work. Combat Gauze or Celox is what you want if you choose to carry a Hemostatic Agent. Get some training on the basics of First Aid, Learn Good Wound Packing (NOT taught in First Aid, EMT or even some Paramedic Schools), learn CPR/AED. On the website above there are other good tips and tools to help you in looking for the right product and training. Stay Safe. This. I'm not up-to-date on any changes with current issue Quickclot. But I will say the old stuff did work, but as stated above, we're talking about life threatening injuries here. I heard they stopped issueing quickclot (apperantly they just changed the compound) because people were doing more harm than good using it for minor wounds, then having to have the shit cleaned out surgically. However I think you would find everything else in the IFAK useful (Bandages/Wraps/Iodine/Burn Ointments/even water purifiers if I remember..). Also as mentioned above, someone with basic first aid training can do more with a band aid and rubbing alcohol than joe-blow can do with an entire life-saver bag. Any first aid classes you attended would put you one step ahead of where you were. I've gotten at least three CPR certs in the last few years, and honestly I feel like I barley remember them. Its a perishable skill and I've just been fortunate enough not to be in a situation that required me to "practice". If it actually came down to it right now, I could probably perform just fine. But when it comes to life saving techniques, probably doesn't inspire much confidence 
(btw hope your son has a fast recovery. I wish I could find a picture of a friend I had who endured a similar injury while laying out concertina-wire, except the stitches were more than three... and they were in an area where the sun don't normally shine) 
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| This is the exact reason I began to make all the first aid equipment for the soldiers in my unit. It has been my experience that issued first aid kits like IFAC are great if not the best thing to have when you are shot or blown up, however in the civilian world we are not usually enduring such hardship. I have been a Paramedic since '96 and have seen just about every new tool on the market to suit every type of injury. I like to keep it simple. I now make several kits that are designed for SDF's,First Respnders, Outdoorsmen, and saftey oriented people. look at www.S-kits.com for examples. Simple,Cheap, and usefull everywere! |