"Rational Preparedness" : The Blog: Revisiting the home emergency first aid kit used in disasters

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Showing posts with label Revisiting the home emergency first aid kit used in disasters. Show all posts

Friday, September 13, 2013

Proper Stocking of Your Home Emergency Medical Kit Used in Disasters

This is clean, non-sterile gauze. Use sterile gauze directly on the wound, and clean non-sterile added on top.

    Most families don't need a first responder quality kit with a surgical kit and sterile sutures. If you are in the business, and you're a registered nurse, an EMT, a physician's assistant who works in surgery or a nurse practitioner with direct surgical experience then you can make a case for having one. There is, I suppose, always the possibility that people in the profession would know someone who is qualified and experienced who in an absolute emergency could do something for you.   In general, an over-the-top kit is a waste of your money. Most really sharp trauma surgeons can improvise in the field better than you can imagine anyway even without such a kit.
               The most important things to have in your first aid kit is 4x4 gauze and lots of it. Because this is an expense, I buy both sterile gauze to place directly on wounds, and clean, non-sterile gauze (which is generally intended to go through an autoclave), but is sufficiently clean to go on top of a sterile gauze pad on a wound. If you have a real injury, the type that needs lots of gauze to contain bleeding or one that requires dressing changes a couple of times a day for a week or two, then you are going to go through the amount of gauze most families stock in the course of a day or two. I recommend at least five packages of 4x4 sized gauze for each family member.   Now, on to 2x2 gauze. These are helpful not only for smaller wounds, ear dressings, but I use these instead of stocking the more expensive eye pads. I also recommend five packages of these for each family member. Store them in a clean freezer bag in a plastic container in order to keep them clean, dry and the outer packaging dust free.
             Most people have a variety of tapes to secure dressings, and I don't care what type you like, as long as you have some that works for you. (There is paper tape, micropore which is somewhat hypoallergenic, and a number of varieties. You want some that won't tear up skin if you must tape to skin, and you should have some which allows you to tape a roller gauze bandage to itself for added security. ) I do want you to consider investing in gauze roller bandages in addition to tape, to secure wounds though.

gauze roller bandage is useful in securing gauze. It comes in sterile and clean varieties. Many times the clean variety is just fine because it's not touching the wound directly.

             I think you should have four packages of six gauze roller bandages for each family member. Fortunately, this is cheap.

               In your kit at home, you should have several bottles of hydrogen peroxide and some bottles of isopropyl alcohol. I don't much care about the percentage of the alcohol. Isopropyl alcohol of any percentage poured on a sewing needle intended for splinter removal, for example, will kill the pathogens, and this is what you are shooting for.

        Gauze, tape, roller gauze and the appropriate medical fluids are the essential starting points, yet almost no one stocks enough of these things at home.

         If you want information on my recommendations for the full kit (which should be assembled only after the items listed here) I listed these on a prior post:

http://survivalweekly.com/downloadable-files/basic-survival-first-aid-kit/

http://rationalpreparedness.blogspot.com/2011/12/assembling-your-own-excellent-first-aid.html

http://rationalpreparedness.blogspot.com/2011_09_01_archive.html

     http://rationalpreparedness.blogspot.com/2011/09/creating-your-own-emergency-medical-kit.html

            The largest deficiency I see in home medical kits is an insufficient amount of gauze.   EMTs are able to restock virtually every time they deliver a patient to a hospital. In a genuine state or national emergency, restocking will not be immediately possible. I will provide some internet sources for large packages of these items, at the bottom of this post.

                 Now that I have mentioned this, I would like to mention a medical device which is nice to have.   They are not essential when amassing a kit for the first time, but they are refinements that could be helpful depending upon what you encounter. Its most obvious use is on limbs but it can be used on the head or trunk also.

                  The Israeli Battle Dressing, is often just called an Israeli Dressing.

Product Features:
•       Internationally patented, FDA approved modular bandage
•       Quick, easy and convenient for one-handed or self-application
•       Sterile, non-adherent pad effectively applies direct pressure to any site
•       Additional tourniquet application to further constrict blood-flow
•       Vacuum-sealed packaging; X-Ray compatible

- See more at: http://www.officersurvival.org/collections/bleeding/products/israeli-dressing?utm_campaign=7930&utm_term=israeli%20battle%20dressing&utm_medium=google&utm_source=trada&utm_content=31793668639#sthash.Pjokjvlt.dpuf

The main features of this dressing is that it is an FDA approved device which is designed to be either a pressure dressing or to be used as a modified tourniquet designed for pre-hospital use of traumatic injuries. It IS possible to self apply with one hand, with advance practice. (I keep an open one just for teaching purposes.) The limb can be x-rayed with the dressing remaining intact.

Here's where you can get some:

http://www.officersurvival.org/collections/bleeding/products/israeli-dressing?utm_campaign=7930&utm_term=israeli%20battle%20dressing&utm_medium=google&utm_source=trada&utm_content=31793668639

This is additional information on the Israeli Dressing should you wish more detail or to see a more comprehensive set of directions: