Guns and First Aid Kits

I carry a comprehensive St Johns First Aid kit in the car (most commercial kits for cars are useless.)

Make sure you have a rug or space blanket in there- for shock and incase you have to lie someone down, as well as a blaze orange vest- (you don't want to be run over while helping)

Incidentally carry a knife in the car with the kit- I once had to get someone out of a car and their seat belt had jammed on after the crash.

One final thing- please learn how to use the above and consider keeping first aid certification current- in Australia if you do, St John Ambulance provide you with free insurance incase you get sued. US residents may like to look into this and see if they do the same there.

One final thing, get a safety triangle and if you have a mag light get one of those illuminated cone things that fit on the end that cops use.
 
Butch 50- I also meant to say well done. You have survived one of lifes great tests and performed under pressure.

I have been in a situation of being on the scene of an accident twice and attended a heart attack once in my 50 yrs on this planet. The first experience, where I wanted to help and did not really know how led to me obtaining St Johns certification as a first aider.

You also highlighed one of the paradoxes of America and sadly the world, today- that I hope a lot of readers will ponder- a lot of guys are prepared to pack a gun to help out ( and I don't question the desirability or honourability of them doing so) but don't think about a first aid kit. Which is more important? to save or to take life?


I believe, as I think you do, we all need to prepare for both.
 
Gloves are important. I forgot about mentioning them, but I have a pair in the trunk.

Fire extinguishers are a bit tricky. You may have to shop around to find one that will stand up to the heat. If you carry one, put it in the trunk. It may stay a bit cooler and if it leaks it won't be as bad. Check it often. The last one I had in the car leaked empty in no time--probably from the heat.
 
As a former EMT you can do alot with some 4x4's cling or curlex wraps, gloves and cpr mask. Sounds like you did ok and you had some good help. A friend of mine was at an industrial fire one day and he told me he thought he could have done a better job. I told him "you put the fire out, you didn't get anyone hurt and you didn't make the 6 o'clock news, sounds like a good job to me"!
 
The beginning of the bug out kit:

Surplus military back pack to hold it all:
One first aid kit that leans heavily towards large wound trauma supplies
including gloves and a locking knife with half smooth half serrated blade, and a police type whistle - still looking for a CPR mask
One bundle of Kimberly Clark Disposable Shop Towels - very strong, these will make excellent large wound bandages to control bleeding
One light weight disposable trauma blanket
One super light weight space type blanket
One bottle of water
One .22 semi-auto pistol with a box of hollow point stingers
Four road flares (make good fire starters too)
One reflective road triangle
One orange safety vest
One disposable poncho
One machete
25 feet of 1/2 inch rope and caribiners
Flashlight
Leather work gloves
One roll of toilet paper

Things to add:
Change of clothes
Food bars
Small tarp of 6 mil plastic approx 15' x 15'
Matches
Compass
Small portable radio
Candles

In the truck but not in the pack is a fire extinguisher and a crow bar. What am I forgetting?

One final thing- please learn how to use the above and consider keeping first aid certification current- in Australia if you do, St John Ambulance provide you with free insurance incase you get sued. US residents may like to look into this and see if they do the same there.
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We have a "Good Samaritan Law" in Texas, and maybe in the US in general (someone knowledgeable on this please help me out) which protects Joe Citizen from law-suits if he renders aid. I do not believe it is tied in to being certified in giving first aid - and currently my certification has expired. I have had first aid/CPR training at least a dozen times, but not in the past 24 months.
 
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I carry a First Aid kit in my truck at all times, have since I was 16. The current incarnation came from oxarc.com. It came in a steel box, I just throw it under the seat and forget about it. When I was a Boy Scout we had a fairly large and comprehensive troop first-aid kit contained in a tackle box. It is a good idea for a trunk kit. There are also several manufacturers (sp?) that make dedicated seatbelt cutters so you avoid accidently cutting your patient with a knife.
 
My wife is a nurse and she makes sure we have rather good first aid kits in the car and the house and so on. I also take one with us when we are camping and hiking out in the wilderness. Mostly its used for cuts and mosquito bites but you never know and on at least one occasion we saved a guy's life who collapsed and had stopped breathing and heart had stopped and got it restarted with cpr.

I would recommend infact everyone take a cpr course and basic first aid lessons. They are not too expensive and there are many quality organisations that will give you lessons for not too much money.
 
I have carried a first aid kit in the car for some years now and I have printed off the above lists and checked them against the contents.
 
There are some really good ideas in this thread. As a LEO as well as First Responder I have a leather bag that I carry with me whereever I go. Among other things in the bag, ;) , I always make sure that I have a good first aid kit to handle most of the problems I might encounter while out and about. I would recommend this to everyone. You never know when it might be needed.
 
I can tell you that it is very very bad feeling to have no first aid equipment when you need it. Definitely not a feeling I want to repeat.
 
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Well hell, I got to stupid first didn't I? :)

Just passing along what I figured out the hard way. I sure was glad when someone out of the crowd came up with that roll of guaze and those clean towels.
 
I decided a few of years ago, when we lived in California, to be sure I had a fire extinguisher, flares, and a first-aid kit in the car. And after we moved to New Hampshire, and were driving down to New York for Passover in 2004, we had to use it - a car passing us on the freeway in CT suddenly burst out with huge plumes of white smoke.

Turned out the guy's head gasket had blown and the engine was spraying a fine mist of oil onto the exhaust manifold, further misted by the spinning belts and pulleys.

We managed to put out the fire with the extinguisher I grabbed from my trunk, and thanks to that he was able to sell the car to the place that towed it in Connecticut, from his home in Pittsburgh, without a lot of expense and hassle that would have been inevitable if the car had been seriously damaged by fire.

It's quite surprising when it happens, but it feels good to have the tools at the ready to deal with situations like these.
 
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Great job Butch. :)

In addition to a first aid kit, a fire extinguisher is a good thing to keep in the car. I like the intermediate size class ABC type that stand about 2 feet high and are about 4+ inches in diameter.

Incidently, in the circumstance you described, manpower may have worked as a last resort. I was driving a taxi in the U.K. for awhile years ago, and one night came across a guy pinned under the back axle of a rather large (by euro standards) station wagon with a small crowd around it.

All he could manage was a muffled "get it off me" as he was flat on his back with the axle across his chest. I started counting heads around me - more than half a dozen.

"Pick it up!"

And with about six pairs of hands on the back bumper and wheel wells - up it went, while someone slid the guy out of the way by his feet.

We could have easily walked this car, one end at a time, a considerable distance. I recall during my military days as a prank some of the guys at one of my duty stations picked up some gal's car and moved it a considerable distance across a parking lot.
 
Never EVER remove a crushing weight unless the victim is certain to die rapidly if it is not removed.

Similarly if a victim is pinched or crushed between two objects, do NOT remove the pressure if at all possible.

It is likely that there are internal injuries and the pressure is preventing massive bleeding. It is not uncommon for a person to bleed out almost immediately upon removal of the pressure. In one case, a man was pinned against a loading dock by a semi trailer. He was talking and joking with rescuers while pinned, but instantly collapsed and died when the trailer was moved. That was in spite of the best efforts of emergency responders already on the scene.

Furthermore, with crushing injuries, the spine or neck may be damaged and the victim shouldn't be moved unless there is no alternative.

Along the same lines, if a victim is impaled, do NOT remove the impaling object unless it is clear that the victim will immediately die without removal. The impaling object is probably reducing the bleeding and removing it could cause the victim to bleed to death very rapidly.

Remember, the first rule is not to make things worse. If you're the kind of person who wants to get involved, you need to get some training so that you're helping and not hurting.
 
JohnKSa
Never EVER remove a crushing weight unless the victim is certain to die rapidly if it is not removed. [etc]
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This depends - and you stated as much.

In this case the victim could barely breathe. Bear in mind too that this was in Britain before any of the peasants had cell phones. And in the days when ambulances - at least in the U.K. - were brightly painted taxis with flashing lights and a two-tone horn. No life support equipment and ambulance drivers were not even trained like the current EMT types.

As an aside, I arrived in the aftermath of an accident recently where the victim died under a vehicle, the first responders having waited for a succession of special units etc. He was dead in less than twenty minutes. A hospital was minutes away by car.
 
I might have missed it while scrolling through the posts....but Galls carries enough first aid stuff to turn your car into a small emergency room. Someone suggested a knife for seatbelts...I've been a cop for 11 years and have worked hundreds of accidents including some really gruesome fatalities, and to this day I've never found a seat belt that was stuck. What I have found were situations that I couldn't get to the seatbelt release because of damage, and in one case the console of the vehicle had smashed the release so tightly between it and the seat I couldn't get it out. I refuse to leave the house without a good knife, and in case I do lose that knife, I have another one in the glove compartment of my car, my patrol bag that rides next to me, and one in every first aid kit I have including my patrol car and my personal vehicles. For sure get a reflective vests...nothing like going to an accident scene at night and having to play "dodge the Dodge" while trying to do first aid or direct traffic around the car.

Something else I would add to the mix, either get some chem lights or road flares to put out at night just for the added visibility for night time accidents.

PS. If you ever see me standing on the side of the road nearly in tears...it's because I lost the Benchmade Auto Folder that I carry with me everywhere I go. I LOVE that knife!!!!!
 
What am I forgetting?
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It's tough to say... It's easy for us gear-hogs to wish to turn a "bug-out bag" into, well, a home! Put enough stuff into it and it's no longer practical, right?

I would say that to your list I would add a small camp hatchet, although maybe the machete covers that, sort of. If given a choice of one OR the other, I think I'd go with hatchet. I'd also add a bottle of Zippo lighter fluid, and a tough Zippo lighter. You don't always want to start a road flare to get a fire going, right? Nothing is as simple and reliable a lighter as a Zippo. Purely mechanical, sturdy, functional.

I would also add a generous length of 550 paracord. This is available, actually, in a wide variety of colors. I would recommend black, and neon yellow. (order from ubraidit.com -- click "supplies" and then "parachute cord/paracord in 30 colors")

That stuff is extremely versatile, probably more so than 1/2" rope on a day-to-day basis. And it's cheap. That site sells 500' spools for about $30.

This is an awesome thread! :)

-blackmind
 
KHarmon

Because you have been going to wrecks to rescue people for 11 years you have my undying respect. I have been to one, and that is enough for me. I am better prepared now if I have to go to another one, but I am certainly not looking for it.
 
LAK,

I don't know what your level of training is so I wasn't commenting directly on your actions, only to the forum in general. I was just using your post as a springboard, so to speak.

The "you" in my post was general, not directed specifically at you (LAK).

I also want to make it clear that I am NOT trying to discourage people from helping at a trauma scene, just pointing out that some things that seem the obvious thing to do can be really exactly the wrong thing to do. First Aid and CPR training are available at low cost and are an important asset in the "bag of tricks" of a person determined to be prepared.
 
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