People may want to keep in mind, the blow out kit you carry on you all the time, is for treating "YOU" when something bad happens. That is different then planning on taking care of day to day stuff, or planning on using a kit for taking care of others.

Hopefully your group medic, if you have one, carries supplies for more advanced stuff, and for daily normal treatment. If not, you carry the normal daily stuff, in your own med kit in your pack, but the blow out kit is always on you and for use with major trauma, to keep you alive until you can get more advanced medical help.

I keep things like burn packets, blood clotters, SAM splint, large trauma bandages, suture, rehydration packet, tourniquet, pain meds, nitro pills, etc. Things for someone else to use on me to stabilize me, until a medic gets to me, or I can get somewhere to do more advanced medical treatment on myself, or have it done by someone else.

The personal Blow out kit needs to be small and light enough you are not going to leave it somewhere when trying to save weight or space. It does no good if it is not with you all the time.

Anyway, thats my personal opionion on the subject, take it for what that is worth.

Wulfin,
Good point about "your" medical kit and the "medics" medical kit.

If you are in a group that has a designated medic, then they should be carrying the most important things to treat others. In my opinion and others I know, the medic will carry the load when it comes to medical emergency supplies and the rest of the group will carry the needs of the medic like extra food and water etc., Otherwise you would have the medic carrying the medical supplies plus all their supplies.

The rest of the team will want to support and protect their medic so that the medic will be there to treat them in an emergency. Just to be clear, the medic will carry some food and water too (to ensure against separation or loss of other members), but the others will support him/her.

One thing we need to consider.

If things really go to pot. Medical help will be few and usually far away. Trauma Centers are almost always in the big metropolises most of us are getting away from.

You will need to carry an small aide kit with you at all times. Just for the small everyday things that happen in an active lifestyle.

Any infection can and will become a life threat under high stress situations. To survive you will need to be able to at least control bleeding and clean any open wound. Even the smallest opening in the skin can become a route for a life threatening infection.

I won't even discuss most Doctors abilities with out the massive infrastructure they are used to.

I recently heard a Doctor tell a patient, He wasn't comfortable lancing a boil. The patient would have to call a surgeon and have it done.

The surgeons office laughed and said four months to get an appt.

They ended up going to an ER and getting it done and out in about an hour. (Urgent care fast track section a Physicians Assistant did it.)

I agree paramudduck
that is why it will be so important to take care of even the smallest of wounds. Get it cleaned, put some bacitracin on it and bandage it. Watch for infection.

Mine is small because uncle sam taught me to carry trauma emergency items in my personal kit and get the rest from medical. Then I have a BOB (3 day assault pack) that is mainly medical that my son will carry.

Trauma kit on my vest:

One handed tourniquet
1-packet blood stopper
Trauma shears
Triangular bandage
Occlusive dressing
sterile burn bandage
trauma dressing
hemostats
3-4x4 sterile gauze
2 rolls durapore tape
2 tegaderm waterproof dressing
1 nasopharyngeal airway
sterile sponge
CPR mask
4 pairs latex gloves

All of this fits in a small MOLLE pouch that affixes to the rear flank on my LBV.

My extended kit goes much bigger to treat up to 6 people for a week for cuts and scrapes, or for up to 3 days for trauma depending on severity and includes more of everything plus more advanced items such as:

Antibiotics, painkillers, sutures, surgical staplers/ removers, IV lines/fliuds, scalpels, sterile surgical instruments, sterile surgical gloves size 8 and 9. But as i said, this is a 3 day pack weighing 38 - 50 pounds depending on how much personal stuff my son packs as well.

paramudduck wrote:Since I know me.

What should be included in a med kit for your belt or vest?

If I get started stocking I'll probably be trying to fit an autodefib in a cargo pocket. You know just beside the intubation equipment and IV infusions. And just over the drug box.

So talk me down and give me some idea's that a person can move carrying them without having a pack of nothing but medical.

Looking to go small - vest/belt.

Any number of good suggestions already included.

My thoughts - centered mainly around self care.

You need to be able to plug 2 holes. The one going in and the one made going out.

You need to be able to STOP severe life threatening bleeding so you can plug the 2 holes.

So at a minimum - two Israeli or similar bandages and a CAT or similar tourniquet.

Add to that a 2 inch role of Durapore silk tape to tape down plastic over a sucking chest wound to make a one way valve and you're set for most trauma that can be taken care of by a vest/belt kit.

Then again 2 roles of Kerlix and a 6" ace wrap with the Durapore will also work pretty good also.

After that maybe some BooBoo items - Beta-dine and bandaids - maybe a small container of saline based eyewash.
Maybe a couple of go/nogo pills - go pills to help you go - nogo pills to keep you from going. I'm not talking sleep here.

Maybe a couple of ibuprophen or aspirin tablets. At this point, you're getting moderately large for where you've said you're gonna put this.

If you want to look at purchasing a ready made or building your own based on a ready made:
BooBoo Kit
http://www.tacticalresponsegear.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=37_176&products_id=4282
Blow out Kit
http://www.tacticalresponsegear.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=36&products_id=2417

There are others available from other companies and surplus - I've recommended these kits because they list their components.

My opinion you pretty much have to decide which areas of care you're going to cover and to what depth when making up these kits.

Look at Military Moron's site for other ideas:
http://www.militarymorons.com/equipment/emerg.html

Jerry thank you for posting everclear, never thought of it. I also put in 72hrs of blood presure,suger, and my script pain meds ,same 4 truck & wifes car. some days it sucks to be a graybeard. hardly ever more than 50 miles from home any more.

paramudduck wrote:Since I know me.

What should be included in a med kit for your belt or vest?

If I get started stocking I'll probably be trying to fit an autodefib in a cargo pocket. You know just beside the intubation equipment and IV infusions. And just over the drug box.

So talk me down and give me some idea's that a person can move carrying them without having a pack of nothing but medical.

I didn't read the entire thread lol..

I finally got two kits put together (for me and wifey). Here's what I did.

Case: old issue 6545-01 alice clip kit with the plastic watertight insert.
inside the plastic :
(2) 800 mg Ibuprofen
(1) razor blade
(1) size 0 vicryl suture
(1) size 2 vicryl suture
(1) expandable non-stick wound pad w/gauze roll (4"x4.1yd, pad 9.01"x5.12")
(1)conforming stretch bandage (4"x4.1yd)
(1) stainless steel forcep/needle holder
(1) boot lace w/ loop tied on one end (cheap tourniquet with multiple uses)
outside the plastic, but inside the nylon carrier I put
(1) mylar emergency blanket
(1) first aid/cpr instructions (came with the surplus carriers lol)
(1) bic lighter
(1) roll of waterproof first aid tape (1/2" x6 yds)

I was also going to roll up some duct tape in a "flat" roll after reading the current issue kit contents. Seems like it would be real handy. I was trying to find 3-4oz size sterile saline eyewash bottles to stuff in there. Also a few safety pins I just haven't got to it yet.

I could think of a bunch more stuff that could come in handy, but how much can you fit in a 6"x5"x2" square lol.

As a EMT-IV here in Tennessee I have bags that I can use per my protocols and then I have another bag that is more personal use. I have seen some great ideas to add to my own bag.

I have done my Med kits according to zones. Zone one is the one that I carry in my purse and it just has basics (bandaids, antibiotic ointment, cleaning clothes , pr of gloves etc). Zone two is the one that is always in my car (under 5 minutes away from where I work) it is a little more detailed and has all the items in the zone one plus items for CPR and larger wound care, sunscreen, etc. also has more gloves. Zone three is the kit that I have at home (can make it to that kit in under 30 minutes of drive time). It is the one that has all my goodies to include everything in the zone one and two kits, my over the counter meds, dental equipment, minor surgery (working on items for bigger things), etc. That is just how I did it since it made sense to me and there was no way that I could carry everything I might possibly need I just had to prioritze the things I needed.