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Thread: skills to match your trauma kit

  1. #1

    Default skills to match your trauma kit

    i'll first start off with a saying some of you here are familar with.
    DO NO HARM,. i have a rather exstensive aid bag and a few small ones.
    thing is i have nothing in them i don't know how to use.
    so there's nothing fancy in there so to speak.

    i think when someone want's to buid thier first trauma bag,
    it should be a build as you learn thing.
    for instance if you don't know how to treat a sucking chest wound
    do you really need a halo chest seal?
    there are tons of stuff you can get online,but don't really need
    unless you know how to to use them. i think many here would agree.

    i've seen some pretty fancy trauma blo out kits for sale.
    my self i've built my own to match my skill sets.
    i'm self trained not a EMT or doctor.

    i can do minor surgical prosidures ie' suturing
    deep wound care ,boo boos and stop bleeding.and use a npr
    so that's pretty much it.
    so ho how do your skills match up to your kit?
    coyotes listen to them, like children of the night what music they make.


  2. #2
    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    I have to agree...If you don't know how to use it....not much point in carrying it around.
    Truck is a different story.

    My kits are all very basic Boo Boo leak stoppable.......but heavy on meds.
    'Aspirin/ ibuprofen, imodium, benadryl, cough drops, antiseptic, iodine and salves.

    Bandages, 4"x 4" pads, tape, gauze, bandana.....some sutures....but I don't sew up any one, nor have tampax for bullet holes .
    I have yet to see a sucking chest wound........so if what I do carry won't stop the leakage.......direct pressure is going have to do.

    Many carry a very complete field FAK including surgical stuff.......I don't as I do not have the skills to use it.

    When we took a first aid course for work, all supervisor were required to take....I asked the company nurse, ..retired navy for the short version...
    If you can see it, put a bandaid on it.....if you can't, give them a aspirin........And don't bleed on my floor.
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  3. #3
    Senior Member kyratshooter's Avatar
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    First, there is a clear difference between first aid and practicing medicine. You had best know where that line resides and stay inside it.

    Once you cross that threshold you have passed from the protection of the "Good Samaritan" clause and entered practicing medicine without a license/malpractice area.

    Minor surgery and suturing wounds in the field pretty much crosses that line. The guys at the ER are going to speak to the EMT people and then the police, after they have to undo what was done in the field. Those guys want bleeding controlled, treatment for shock, and broken bones immobilized and not much else.

    That is one of the first things that is emphasized in any basic first aid class taught by any certifying agency.

    I had combat trauma training, like thousands of others, which goes a bit farther than treating minor cuts and scrapes. I have friends that did "procedures" in the field during combat that would get them jailed if they did the same today on U.S. soil. My wife had to go through several years training after she left the Army medical corps in order to do the exact same job in a civilian hospital that she had done as a battalion aid station medic.

    I also have many friends that work in the medical field, nurses, nurse practitioners, MD types. We camp together and they usually bring half a truck load of med supplies. Oddly, just about every outing we have to use something from the kits on someone. The procedure is always the same, Cover the wound, stop the bleeding, stabilize a fracture if needed, get the guy to the ER for proper treatment.

    Sometimes we are hours away from a hospital. The procedure is still the same. They do not cut tissue, clean the wound past removing obvious debris, or sew up anything!

    For that reason I keep a kit in my vehicle with many things I am not trained to use and would not attempt to use during an emergency. I do not even know the proper names for some of that gear, they tossed it to me and told me to put it in my kit, so I did. The stuff is there in case we meet an accident victim on the highway while I am with one of those people.

    As for myself, I will insure an open airway, stop the bleeding, cover the wound, immobilize any fractures, and wait for the guys with the flashing lights and sirens to arrive, or if appropriate, get the injured party to the hospital, even if that takes all day.
    If you didn't bring jerky what did I just eat?

  4. #4

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    Well I guess that leaves me with what I usually carry. Gauze and duct tape.

  5. #5
    Senior Member kyratshooter's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by madmax View Post
    Well I guess that leaves me with what I usually carry. Gauze and duct tape.
    Max, I once saw a sucking chest wound treated with the foil from a cigarette pack and duct tape.

    I do not know if the guy lived but I did take note of the treatment option.
    If you didn't bring jerky what did I just eat?

  6. #6

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    ciggertte foil hum, ai'nt exactly a asherman chest seal.
    anyhow i forgot my medical disclamer, the other saying goes
    no good deed goes unpunished, there ya go.
    coyotes listen to them, like children of the night what music they make.

  7. #7
    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    Hummmm, lots of folks quit smoking.....???
    Geezer Squad....Charter Member #1
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  8. #8
    Senior Member Desert Rat!'s Avatar
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    +1 What kyrat said.

  9. #9
    Senior Member Phaedrus's Avatar
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    I limit my FAK to just stuff I know how to use. So the most advanced stuff I have is just things like TKs, Sam Splints, and various bandages and hemostatic agents. No way I'm gonna play surgeon or try to suture anyone in the field.

  10. #10

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    as far as anything of a surgical nature
    it's really a post shtf kinda thing.
    being laws as they are.
    the medical establishment does'nt take kindly
    to cutting them out of the game.
    coyotes listen to them, like children of the night what music they make.

  11. #11
    Super Moderator crashdive123's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by hayshaker View Post
    as far as anything of a surgical nature
    it's really a post shtf kinda thing.
    being laws as they are.
    the medical establishment does'nt take kindly
    to cutting them out of the game.
    Just curious.... What post shtf kinda thing do you envision where you would need to perform surgery?
    Can't Means Won't

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    Administrator Rick's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Hayshaker
    the medical establishment does'nt take kindly to cutting them out of the game.


    Medical establishment....cutting them out....I see what you did there.

  13. #13

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    if the hospitals were to close . and sorry if anyone took my post the wrong way.
    i don't plan on sewing up so to speak any stranger under the current
    state we live in.
    coyotes listen to them, like children of the night what music they make.

  14. #14
    Super Moderator crashdive123's Avatar
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    Again, just curious - what scenario do you envision where the hospitals would be closed?
    Can't Means Won't

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    #3 son is a Firefighter/Paramedic. I just take him.

    Alan

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    I suppose in a situation like Katrina, ... The hospitals were not closed but the ones that weren't inoperable were inaccessible. In those situations you're just going to do the best you can, sucking chest wound or not... In those scenarios a whole bunch of folks are just SOL.

    #1 son used to hog hunt, a lot, fanatically... He had a stapler that he would patch up the dogs with when they got cut up. One morning he came in with staples up his arm, and his aim hadn't been particularly good. I made a very strong suggestion (demand) that he visit the Dr. immediately and certainly prior to his mother seeing it. He did... I'm glad those days are gone.

    Alan

  17. #17
    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    I quit carrying the snake bite kit.....

    LeRoy got snake bit in the private parts.

    So I got the kit out and called 911 on the cell phone.

    They told me to take the blade in the kit, cut the bites open a bit...then suck out the poison...

    I hung up........ LeRoy says...."What did the Doc say???"

    He said to role you in your side,.... fold you up in a fetal position....cup one hand around your ear, the cup the other hand around the ear
    Then say....."Doc says you gonna die"
    Geezer Squad....Charter Member #1
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  18. #18
    Senior Member kyratshooter's Avatar
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    Leroy has been dying from that same snake bite since I was a kid Hunter!

    The doctors around here will tell you real quick that the average first aid practitioner will do more harm trying to "treat" snakebite than if you just load the victim up and get them to the ER within half a day from being bitten.

    We have one place her in KY down near the Red River Gorge, in Daniel Boone NF that has the highest density of Copperheads in the nation. I have forgotten the exact numbers but it totals to several hundred per acre. Hikers get nailed down there all the time. I can not ever remember anyone dying.

    More people in the U.S. die from infected hang nails than from snake bite.
    If you didn't bring jerky what did I just eat?

  19. #19

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    Down here juvenile pygmy rattlers curl up to the size of a silver dollar. They have no control over the amount of venom they inject (unlike the adults (who are pretty small themselves). You get the full load first bite.

    Look before you squat.

  20. #20
    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by kyratshooter View Post
    Leroy has been dying from that same snake bite since I was a kid Hunter!

    The doctors around here will tell you real quick that the average first aid practitioner will do more harm trying to "treat" snakebite than if you just load the victim up and get them to the ER within half a day from being bitten.

    We have one place her in KY down near the Red River Gorge, in Daniel Boone NF that has the highest density of Copperheads in the nation. I have forgotten the exact numbers but it totals to several hundred per acre. Hikers get nailed down there all the time. I can not ever remember anyone dying.

    More people in the U.S. die from infected hang nails than from snake bite.
    LOL...Yeah I know...been waiting a long time to use that one....
    Geezer Squad....Charter Member #1
    Evoking the 50 year old rule...
    First 50 years...worried about the small stuff...second 50 years....Not so much
    Member Wahoo Killer knives club....#27

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