Trauma medical kit (blowout kit) - Do you have one? - Know how/when to use it?

[1911user]

Trauma medicine is medical help when immediate attention is required or someone (maybe you) will bleed out in less than 10 minutes. Examples of trauma medicine are someone was shot, bad fall with a deep puncture wound, punctured lung, somehow an artery is cut and it looks like a red fountain at the wound, etc.

Do you have medical knowledge of what to do in a situation like that? Do you carry a trauma medical kit (also known as a blowout kit in military circles)? Do you keep one in a vehicle or BOB?

This might be good knowledge to have now and in a chaotic future. Having specialized medical bandages, tourniquets, etc. would be worth investigating. This could be very useful if someone is accidentally injured at a shooting range and many other situations. This is different than a basic first aid kit (i.e. boo-boo kit).

Comments, knowledge, clarifications, etc. are welcome.

 

[1911user]

a few Youtube videos worth viewing on the trauma subject:

(11:30) Build Your Own Trauma Kit - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdwTRLXO7lQ

(5:00) Building a Budget Trauma Kit - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kX5y7k5fWas

(8:45) Skinny Medic Pocket Trauma Kit - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fg3XL-Wldwk (longer, but lots of details of hows and whys of different items)

(6:20) Skinny Medic Essentials Kit - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_21EUfdczY (a more filled-out trauma kit with explanation of how and why for the items)

(8:11) First Aid/Trauma Kit For Hunters - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75xDlQKKhTE

(11:40) EDC Trauma Kit - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zTOy3ELOp0

 

[Dozdoats]

Tam was riffin' on this just the other day. To wit-

Links at the original ...
=======================

https://booksbikesboomsticks.blogspot.com/2019/05/first-aid-isnt-cool-but-guns-are.html

Thursday, May 09, 2019
First aid isn't cool, but guns are, apparently.

Bring up the idea of first aid supplies and the response is predictable...

People who argue about spare mags and BUGs start hooting and chest-beating and flinging handfuls of leaves and poo, lest they be thought "unprepared".

Like OC spray or a flashlight, first aid gear (and the knowledge of how to use it) is one of those things that has much broader applicability in the real world than a Glock, but e'rrbody wants to carry the Glock. (And endlessly debate about what caliber it should be and what brand of bullets should be in it.)

I don't even necessarily keep the first aid gear on my person for most of the year. This is because I utilize the best protection against accidental self-inflicted GSWs: I leave the gun alone in my holster and don't mess with it.

There are three places I'm likely to unholster or reholster during the day, and totally uncoincidentally, there's a blowout kit staged at each of them (nightstand, car trunk, range bag).

I'm not a "high-responder"; if I were the sort of person likely to run over and get my hands bloody if I saw someone get injured, I'd be more likely to carry it on me. I have several friends who've actually used the med gear they carry on their person to respond to car or motorcycle accidents that happened in their presence.

If you do want to carry basic stop-the-bleed gear on your person, there are easy ways to do it. PHLster offers the Pocket Emergency Wallet and the Flatpack TQ carrier. Dark Angel Medical offers an ankle kit.

I'll let blogger wizardpc have the last word, here:
“I carry a 2lb gun because I might be in a gun fight”
“I don’t carry an 8oz GSW kit because it’s heavy and, really, what are the chances of me needing that?"

Okay, then.

You do you. I don’t care. But the attitudes are a little comical.

Word.

(EDIT: I should add a disclaimer, here. PHLster's Amazon store is legit, but I'd caution against buying tourniquets from random sellers on Amazon, since odds are good that they're airsoft-grade fakes.)
.

Posted by Tam @ 9:31 AM

 

[hiwall]

I've been hurt many times in my life. I have had about as many stitches as a pair of jeans. I have patched myself up many times. I think I could do it again if I needed to do so. I just hope I don't ever need to

 

[Hfcomms]

I have a major trauma kit in my cabin and one in my vehicle complete with tourniquet, blood stop powder, pulse-ox, airways ect. You never know.

 

[Dozdoats]

You can improvise most stuff except the knowledge... last time I haz a bleed, my self-applied bandage was paper towels and electrical tape .

 

[summerthyme]

You can improvise most stuff except the knowledge... last time I haz a bleed, my self-applied bandage was paper towels and electrical tape .

Yep, this. I once saved a heifer who somehow managed to puncture a lung (from the top... stood up under a piece 9f machinery with a 12" length of angle iron extending straight down) with saran wrap and duct tape as a chest seal. She didnt even get an infection!

Summerthyme

 

[Dennis Olson]

Please STOP posting multiple choice polls, unless that is a direct intent. If you’re going to post polls (and I have nothing against you doing so), I suggest you drop by the test forum and learn how to properly set/use the various options.


The above statement is actually meant for ALL people who want to post polls.

 

[IceWave]

I and my friends have more than we probably need.
But being part of several disaster response groups means it's always on my mind and I strive to keep my kits and my skills up to date.

 

[Dennis Olson]

Most of us are not doctors or EMTs, and for serious trauma wouldn’t be able to effectively use advanced equipment or techniques. In that vein, your OP is kind-of unrealistic.

 

[1911user]

I have a few of these minimalist trauma kits: https://medicalgearoutfitters.com/collections/trauma-kits/products/edc-trauma-kit
This would not be hard to have with you all of the time. I have other items as well when more space is available, but this is the basic core items to handle lots of bad possibilities.

video about this minimal kit: (11:40) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zTOy3ELOp0

Kit includes:

1 - SWAT-T (tourniquet)
1 - NAR 4" Flat EDC Trauma Dressing (pressure bandage)
1 - Celox Rapid, S-Rolled Gauze, Combat Gauze (wound packing material)
1- Vaseline Dressing 3" x 9" (can be used as chest seal for sucking chest wound; takes up almost no space)

 

[Millwright]

I carry the basics.

Bandaids, tribiotic, 4x4s, tape, alcohol pads, quick clot powder...need to replace my QC bandages that got used.

Army combat bandages.

Suture kit & clean syringes.

Vet wrap, gloves & other standard this-n-thats.


Really need to inventory, restock & replace dated stuff.

 

[1911user]

Most of us are not doctors or EMTs, and for serious trauma wouldn’t be able to effectively use advanced equipment or techniques. In that vein, your OP is kind-of unrealistic.

I did intend multiple choice since multiple options apply to some. Specialized med stuff is nice, but I can improvise as well. I also carry the very basic items on my person some of the time. Something in a backpack is almost a given.

This isn't as hard as you might think. It's about stopping the bleeding (or air leak into lungs) to allow getting to a hospital or professional medical care. Trauma medicine buys time for the professionals to get involved.

I edited the OP to confirm this is useful now, not just in SHTF situations.

 

[WalknTrot]

Rule#1. Call 911 and let the experts do their jobs.

But in case that isn't gonna work or will take too long and it's getting crunch time:
I keep a zip lock in the truck with a couple of diapers, sanitary pads, rolls of (horse) VetWrap, Kelly forceps, scissors, sharp knife, duct tape, catheter gauge needles, a couple of 6cc syringes, gloves, and space blankets. Also have a couple of old but clean cotton t-shirts and pairs of sweatpants in the bigger tote that stays in the truck. Certainly not afraid of blood, and handled enough juicy meatball veterinary stuff to dive in and clamp off an artery or major bleeder in a wound. I ain't planning on putting in a chest tube or doing an emergency tracheostomy at the side of the road, but do understand the principles, and in a pinch, am pretty resourceful. I know the anatomy well, have done both in training many times, and seen it done a lot more times, both the needle variety and the "cutting" variety. If it was do or die, I guess I could do...or give it a real good try if there weren't other options. Thing is, these things are still just time stretchers. The poor victim still needs a real emergency room. Without it, not much hope.

 

[Dennis Olson]

I did intend multiple choice since multiple options apply to some. Specialized med stuff is nice, but I can improvise as well. I also carry the very basic items on my person some of the time. Something in a backpack is almost a given.

This isn't as hard as you might think. It's about stopping the bleeding (or air leak into lungs) to allow getting to a hospital or professional medical care. Trauma medicine buys time for the professionals to get involved.

First, if it’s a SHTF scenario, you won’t be going to a hospital, nor will “professionals” likely be available to help you. Next, “or air leak into lungs” is a tension pneumothorax. Unless you have a cutdown tray and VERY advanced knowledge, you’re not going to be helping anyone with that condition.

 

[Millwright]

You can cram a lot of stuff in one of those 6x8x4 dry boxes from wallyworld.

 

[1911user]

First, if it’s a SHTF scenario, you won’t be going to a hospital, nor will “professionals” likely be available to help you. Next, “or air leak into lungs” is a tension pneumothorax. Unless you have a cutdown tray and VERY advanced knowledge, you’re not going to be helping anyone with that condition.

It doesn't have to be SHTF to need trauma medical help. (I edited the OP to make that clear)

Cutting firewood and the saw slips, accidentally shot at a gun range or hunting, bad fall while hiking, bad traffic accident scene (probably most likely need non-SHTF), fall off of the house roof, etc.

Long-term post trauma care will be hard with infection control and healing bad wounds.

Trauma medicine, for me, is about keeping them alive beyond the initial 10 minutes or so.

 

[Mark Armstrong]

I have heard that tampons are good for plugging bullet holes, to prevent the victim from bleeding to death, while waiting for the medical professionals to arrive.

 

[SouthernBreeze]

I don't have any advanced medical training, but I do have some. I keep a trauma kit in our home, since that is where we'll be during a SHTF event. It can easily be carried to our vehicle if we have to leave for a period of time.

 

[AlfaMan]

I carry a pretty complete bag in my Blazer-sutures, saline wash, BVM, bp cuff, stethoscope,Kerlix bandages, chest seal, tube kit, etc plus all the "everyday" medical first aid supplies. Because If I don't know how to use some of the stuff, I'm sure there is someone close praying they had equipment that isn't on them.

 

[Dennis Olson]

It doesn't have to be SHTF to need trauma medical help. Cutting firewood and the saw slips, accidentally shot at a gun range or hunting, bad fall while hiking, bad traffic accident scene (probably most likely need non-SHTF), fall off of the house roof, etc.

Long-term post trauma care will be hard with infection control and healing bad wounds.

Trauma medicine, for me, is about keeping them alive beyond the initial 10 minutes or so.

And I agree with you. However, if you render aid, in many jurisdictions you can be held civilly liable if the victim is left with a permanent injury. While unlikely if you’re out in the piney woods with your “drinkin buddies”, it becomes much more likely you’ll get sued if you assist in a situation where the victim is a stranger to you.

 

[hiwall]

I have heard that tampons are good for plugging bullet holes, to prevent the victim from bleeding to death, while waiting for the medical professionals to arrive.

I have used sanitary napkins on large wounds. Seemed to work fine.

 

[WalknTrot]

Very true about rendering aid. Although many states have Good Samaritan laws, I know nurses and trained emergency types who tell me they won't stop for an accident on the road off the clock because of liability.

 

[IceWave]

Very true about rendering aid. Although many states have Good Samaritan laws, I know nurses and trained emergency types who tell me they won't stop for an accident on the road off the clock because of liability.

They are also subject to different liability laws than unlicensed good samaritain lay people who render first aid.

 

[1911user]

I have heard that tampons are good for plugging bullet holes, to prevent the victim from bleeding to death, while waiting for the medical professionals to arrive.

Found this video on the subject:

(9:45) Tampons in a trauma kit?!?!? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf_PPQOrKIc

The short answer is no, there are better and cheaper options. The long version is worth watching the video.

 

[Millwright]

One of those things to review occasionally.

Will probably never need it, but basic knowledge to file away.


Suture - Basic Technique 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6P0rYS6LeZw

 

[Jackpine Savage]

First aid has always been an interest since I was a Boy Scout. It's been 20 years ago now but I did go through an EMT basic course. I still do some reading. Here's an article on tourniquets that I just ran across: rapid-deployment-of-tourniquets-in-the-field-on-yourself-and-on-others

I used to do some extended canoe trips, Dr. Forgey put out a good book on putting together kits for extended care.

I recently went through and organized our household first aid supplies Our vehicles have kits, my shooting bag has a kit, and I have small kit I carry when I'm running the chainsaw by myself.

 

[Jeep]

I have an extensive medical kit at home and carry a smaller version in my truck and GHB. I do have the knowledge on taking care of a lot of emergencies including stitching someone up. Over 40 years in the medical field in Interventional Radiology and working/training at a teaching medical center. And yes tampons work very well for GSW and deep lacerations, I knew several EMT's and medic's who carried them in their emergency kits. They do what they were designed to do as far as stopping blood flow, especially with severe gunshot wounds.

 

[school marm]

Everybody has boo-boo kits in their BOBs.

DH and DS carry IFAKs when they go shooting. If they're carrying a firearm, they're carrying an IFAK, including a tourniquet.

We pack the advanced kit when we go to outdoor 3-D archery tournaments. It stays in the truck. We carry a modified boo-boo kit as we walk the course.

The advanced medical kit is kept in the house and ready to go with us to evacuate. We use it all the time, mostly for the animals. It keeps us familiar with where everything is.

We are not stopping to render aid on road in all likelihood. People are too crazy and I usually have my daughters with me.

We are also 30 minutes at best from a hospital. Ambulances are usually at least 20 minutes out. If someone's at the top of our property, that's at least another 15 minutes tacked on, but for a major injury, like we'd call an ambulance for, it's probably another 30-45 minutes. (It's very steep, rugged terrain.)

So we've taken some off-grid medicine courses (me--3, DD--2, DH--1). No, they do not make us doctors or nurses or EMTs. But as the docs teaching the classes and the doctor-authors of off-grid medicine books point out, most of what we're going to see post-TEOTWAWKI is within our ability to manage with some basic training and practice. Do I want to deal with a pneumothorax? No! But if it happened to my husband or so at the top of our property (and no, there's no place a helicopter could land, either) and only other option is death, I'll do it.

The docs all say that tampons and napkins are great for absorbing blood and maybe work as a pressure dressing for a minor wound. But they're likely not going to work for major bleeding. However, you use what you've got.

We know (or knew) how to use most of the stuff we have, but not all. We also stockpile things we aren't skilled enough to use, but which a physician might use for our family post-collapse. Better to have and not need, than to need and not have.

Reasonable Rascal is one of several authors of a good survival medicine book. You can download it and print it for free.

Survival and Austere Medicine, 3rd Edition

 

[Repairman-Jack]

Multiple kits (I've been an EMT in PA since 1991). Truck kit has multiple size dressings, 3 Tourniquets, 6 compression dressings, 2 halo vented chest seals, 2 quick clot combat gauze, oral and nasal airways, needle for chest decompression, BVM, Pulse OX and more. My work back pack has 2 tourniquets, compression dressing, gloves. My plate carrier (setup for Rescue Task Force/TCCC) has a IFAK, and 2 more TQs. The home medical bin has bunch more dressings etc.

Back in the day when while going to school I worked for a Hospital based EMS, I use to have O2 cylinders, IV supplies, once I started in IT and spent less time on the rigs it became more difficult to keep supplies rotated, and hospitals started implementing better inventory control.

 

[Dozdoats]

Gun skool teaches more than trigger pulling too.

http://www.tacticalanatomy.com/classes/64-tactical-treatment-of-gunshot-wounds.html
Tactical Treatment of Gunshot Wounds

http://journal.drfaulken.com/gunshot-wound-emergency-trauma-class/
Gunshot Wound Emergency Trauma Class

https://www.reddit.com/r/austinguns..._aid_for_gunshot_wounds_class_here_in_austin/
First Aid for Gunshot Wounds Class Here in Austin - 05.11.2019
(texaslawshield.secure.force.com)
submitted 27 days ago by BrianPurkiss

etc


People who go to gun skool take these classes because they are more aware than many of potential need, possibly right there in gun skool. See Tam's post in #3 above.

 

[night driver]

If you DO decide that a tampon is a good idea, I ENCOURAGE you to accompany the vic to an ER so the ER doc can explain -- in EXCRUCIATING detail what he is going to have to do for the vic to clean that out of there.

For the people around you, it will be entertaining. VERY entertaining.

=====================================================================================

Ref sutures.

It is MUCH MORE IMPORTANT to know WHEN and even MORE important to know when NOT TO suture. How is a piece of cake. If you can take a pair of pliers, stick a needle through 2 near pieces of skin (the full thickness, mind you) and then tie a simple knot, you got it. I can teach an orangutang or a chimp to suture. (Yeah the same chimp I can teach to intubate with an ET tube)

The far and away BEST care for open wounds is good clean wound care and dressing use so that the wound heals by secondary intention. And BTW, you STILL NEED TO DO THE SAME QUALITY OF WOUND CARE whether sewn or not. And sewn if not PROPERLY CLEANED and debrided you are creating the BEST growth environment for infections known to medicine.

 

[night driver]

OH.

And thanks for the post.

I need to refresh a NUMBER of small pouches, bags, and kits. And a couple big ones as well.

THANK YOU!!

 

[Millwright]

One thing that vexes me is carrying wound cleaning solution in the truck.

Normally, I don't let it get hot inside, but it does happen.

Which is more stable, Betadyne or peroxide?

Most sites I work at have a coupla liters of sterile saline eyewash bottles...probably better than my tea in the console.

 

[night driver]

Drug store bottle of sterile water and most any small bottle of hand soap is all you really need. Remember that at the time of the injury and when you do the FIRST treatment, it ain't a sterile field, and you aren't even PERIPHERALLY concerned about early healing.

If yer working in environments that having something bubbly to push out cinders and dirt grains etc, I'd look for something called Cramer Cinder Suds. Peroxide is the non-specialist way to do that. You will know when peroxide isn't gonna work. It won't bubble.

N ow SECOND DAY, all you want would be the sterile water and MAYBE some moderately gentle hand soap.

 

[Repairman-Jack]

I have heard that tampons are good for plugging bullet holes, to prevent the victim from bleeding to death, while waiting for the medical professionals to arrive.

Nope. Just nope

Here is a little EBM (Evidence Based Medicine)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6A3dvpGaNU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6A3dvpGaNU

 

[mecoastie]

It doesn't have to be SHTF to need trauma medical help. (I edited the OP to make that clear)

Cutting firewood and the saw slips, accidentally shot at a gun range or hunting, bad fall while hiking, bad traffic accident scene (probably most likely need non-SHTF), fall off of the house roof, etc.

Long-term post trauma care will be hard with infection control and healing bad wounds.

Trauma medicine, for me, is about keeping them alive beyond the initial 10 minutes or so.

This. And most of my trauma training is designed to do just that. Post SHTF the guy that stuck a chainsaw in his leg is toast but in todays world I need to him or myself alive long enough to get to the ER and on a table. I keep a basic kit in my hunting bag, vehicle, and gun bag. I have a tourniquet in the pocket of my chaps when I cut wood right next to the cell phone to call for help if I need it.

 

[Broken Arrow]

I have multiple trauma bags (animal and human) and i'm not afraid to use them! LOL!! Former EMT-I here.

 

[Jez]

I have used sanitary napkins on large wounds. Seemed to work fine.

That is a BIG no no and VERY BAD IDEA. Tampons and their ilk are designed to absorb blood and will take longer to clot.

 

[WalknTrot]

In my experience, the most important thing with a big bleed is to not take off whatever you have grabbed to pressure down on the wound. Just keep adding layers if you have to, and maintain the pressure. Too many times, people "want to look to see if it stopped". That's where they most often lose the clot.