Medical Aid (IFAK) in the field

[backcountryOR]

I'm sure this conversation has been started before but I feel like it should probably come up again. I'm here to advocate to all of you that carrying a tourniquet and pressure bandage could save you or someone you care about's life someday, it's hardly any weight or money and it's simple to learn how to use. Obviously you can go more crazy with IFAK or first aid equipment but having a bare minimum of life saving gear is worth it.

I'm sure there's a lot of fire/EMS/LE/military guys in this community, feel free to agree or disagree with me or make recommendations, but I want to get this out there!

 

[Marble]

Two additional things...

Prepare the tourniquet for use, show your partners wear it is at and have them actually use it so they understand how to put it on.

You do not want to teach someone how to use it while your squirting slippery blood all over the place.

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[StuckoYota99]

No professional experience. But I carry an ifak in my truck. Quik clot, tourniquet, guaze, chest seal, sheers, emergency blanket.
And quikclot and an Israeli bandage in my essential kit in my pack. Along with a boo boo kit
I'll be adding a cat tourniquet to all my first aid kits though.
I used to think I could use a belt or strap from my pack but having it ready and not having to waste time is worth the weight penalty.

 

[huntineveryday]

I carry the SWAT Tourniquet because I think I could apply it one-handed to an upper extremity on myself a little more easily, and I can also use it as a compression wrap if I just need something to hold a bandage in place with pressure. I make up for the size savings on deeper trips by carrying a couple ounces of iodine and a syringe for flushing wounds, however.

 

[Desk Jockey]

I have ifaks and more in my truck. I carry a cat or a rat tourniquet and a pressure dressing and some quick clot on my pack. It probably makes sense to up that to include more iFak contents but I haven’t. I could see a needle and a chest seal coming in handy if someone takes a stray round.

I guess an ifak is better than nothing. One thought is that an ifak is really intended to be a first line of defense in a care chain that likely entails a more experienced and better equipped field medic and a pretty quick cas-evac. So ifak contents are really geared toward shortterm remediation. In a non military or LEO environment that Evac is probably a lot longer in coming. It makes me wonder if that doesn’t cause me to want to rethink my ifak components.

 

[bigeasygator]

My IFAK. For any kind of backcountry or extended hunt this is in my pack. Ratcheting Medical Tourniquet, QuikClot sponge, hemostatic gauze, non-hemostatic gauze, and Solo-T tape. I add a chest seal as well on certain hunts. It’s not the most comprehensive IFAK, but I view it as a good compromise and fairly capable to handle primary care for most injuries I’m worried about until more effective aid can be rendered. I’d add comms as part of the package and I’m always with my inReach in the woods.

 

[BBob]

Okay, but in 50 years ish of hunting, backpacking and doing outdoor things I've never heard of anyone in my circle or even my extended circle of ever needing a tourniquet so I'm not convinced I need to do this. A close friend is a doc and he doesn't carry one either, he does though carry a suture kit which has been used once or twice over the years

Edit: There was that guy years ago that accidentally shot his son in the leg while pig (javelina) hunting. News said it hit femoral. I can't remember if it was a death or if he lived.

 

[huntineveryday]

I started carrying a small med kit even on upland or turkey hunts within a half hour of home. As mentioned above, when dealing with broadheads, hunting knives, or guns, a simple accident could leave you bleeding pretty seriously. A SWAT tourniquet, couple gauze pads, clotting bandage, gorilla tape around an old credit card, some benadryl, some imodium...all fits in a small enough package I can keep it in my vest or cargo pocket without much trouble, but still be able to stabilize a bleed or compound fracture while waiting for the calvalry to arrive. This is all if I have cell service and can expect help relatively quickly. The kit gets more extensive the further I get from help. A chest seal might be a good addition. The kit has to be somewhere you can reach it if you are on your own, or your buddies need to know where it is if you're with a group if the kit is to do any good.

I know 2 people that have had compound fractures from tree stand accidents that resulted in serious bleeding.

 

[Fatcamp]

CAT, coban, and Zoleo for me. I have a lot of stuff between home and vehicles, but this is what I have settled on for field use.

 

[mtnbiker208]

gauze and tape will suffice for most anything a non medical person can do.

 

[def90]

Okay, but in 50 years ish of hunting, backpacking and doing outdoor things I've never heard of anyone in my circle or even my extended circle of ever needing a tourniquet so I'm not convinced I need to do this. A close friend is a doc and he doesn't carry one either, he does though carry a suture kit which has been used once or twice over the years

Edit: There was that guy years ago that accidentally shot his son in the leg while pig (javelina) hunting. News said it hit femoral. I can't remember if it was a death or if he lived.

Sure, no one needs one until someone needs one..

There was a guy a couple years back on one of the youtube hunting shows that fell on a broadhead while bow hunting, ran up in to his leg and was bleeding heavily. The guys that were with him got pressure on the wound and probably saved his life.

STB Home Page

The American College of Surgeons Stop the Bleed program has prepared nearly 4 million people worldwide on how to stop bleeding in a severely injured person.

www.stopthebleed.org

Tactical Combat Casualty Care - TCCC | North American Rescue

We strive to decrease preventable combat death using new strategies and products based on historical wounding patterns in combat and law enforcement.

www.narescue.com

 

[rcook10]

EMTI/AEMT for almost a decade with wilderness certs and 5+ years of EMS education, years of ER/ICU work, SAR, ski patrol, and international experience here. Be cautious taking advice from people spouting about, "oh my god what if I trip and blow my arm off and am bleeding to death miles from help," which is something that maybe, if you are a dumbass can happen. The reality is that if you are responsible, use good risk management , and have situational awareness, the vast majority of care you will render in the field will deal with mild musculoskeletal injury and minor cuts and abrasions. Don't miss 98% of you opportunities to help to catch the bad 2%. I cannot tell you how many tactical morons I have encountered that have tourniquets, IVs (and no clue how to use them), hemostats (TO CLAMP THAT ARTERY LIKE IN BLACKHAWK DOOOOWN) but are in need of help because they don't have basic shit to treat their blisters, scrapes, diarrhea, etc. If you pack your kit right you can handle the 2% with the gear to handle the 98% too.

The first thing I am going to say here: only carry what you know how to use and stay educated and practiced with your tools. There are plenty of wahoos out there that want to dart chests, try to suture people, or other ridiculous shit that ends up hurting themselves or loved ones, don't be that person.

Take a first aid class, particularly a wilderness focused one. Avoid being taught by tactical dildos that carry tourniquets on their undies, guns, baby carriers etc, get taught by fire/ems/ER trained people that see and respond to these injuries every day.

With my advanced training and skillset, I still carry a pretty limited kit (more or less BLS only) when I'm hunting on foot because I'm not interested in carrying 40 pounds of shit on my back and I don't need most of the fancy shit you'll see in turnkey kits or on forums. I do have a bigger kit in the truck which can be useful for rolling up on wrecks or when you get back to it after a pack out or evac but that's because I still do SAR and medical for local organizations. I do carry two tourniquets in the truck because the only place i've seen signifcant bleeding requiring them outside of work has been roll over wrecks I've shown up on by chance. This small kit will handle most everything you need to do.

Here's what I take in a small 2-3# med kit that fits in a backpack, upland vest easily and also services my bird dogs well:

Tools:

• Exam gloves 3-5 pairs: also handy for breaking down game cleanly
• Trauma shears or good quality lister bandage scissors
• Good strong forceps/pinsers/tweezers: for cactus/thorn removal
• Sterile 18ga needles and/or #11 scalpel blade: picking out pokeys and I/D abscesses
• Small flashlight: really like streamlight 1aa one as it clips to a hat/can hang from paracord
• New, unused Lighter
• Toilet Paper: in a waterproof bag
• IF with dog: heavy wire cutters for traps or entanglements with barbed wire. NOT JUST A LEATHERMAN; a lot of trappers in my area have burly fuckin steel cable/multistrand and I have friends that have lost dogs because they couldn't cut it with a multitool. I use 8" knipex piano wire cutters.
• COMMON SENSE
• OH SHIT BUTTON: SAR beacon of some sort; I get into DEEP country often with no service, if I bust a knee and need flown out this is the 2% fix that is worth money/weight. Do some research, I hate paying subscriptions and don't need advanced comms/texts etc for personal use so I went from a Spot to RescueMe.

OTC Meds: A few pills of each in a small tin or vial depending on duration of trip, follow dosing guidelines

• Tylenol: great for pain relief
• Benadryl: mild sedative effects and important for anaphylaxis (i'm allergic to bees but nice if you cant sleep at camp, works great on worked up dogs too)
• Naproxen: oomphy, long lasting ibuprofen, can stack with tylenol
• Carprofen: doggy pain killer, same class as ibuprofen. Will need to ask vet for Rx
• Lomotil: diarrhea sucks
• Peptobismol tablets: upset stomach suck
• IF you have a few left over painkillers from previous surgery/injury, they are great to have in an emergency, especially if you have an extended stay in the backcountry before rescue don't be a dickhead with the dosing.
• Epi if you are an anaphylaxis dingus like me.
• Prednisone if you are an anaphylaxis dingus like me.
• Pack of hydration salts in hot weather

Wound Care:

• Band-Aids of various sizes (good ones made of fabric tape not plastic)
• Wound cleaning supplies
  • iodine or chlorohexidine wipes and a pack of swabs sticks for getting into those nooks and crannies
  • Sterile saline wipes
  • a few alcohol pads (helps degrease stinky, sweaty hunters so things stick).
• Antibiotic ointment packets
• 4-6 Sterile 4x4 gauze packs - usually 2x/packet (these are really important for packing a dog paw, great for cleaning and dressing wounds)
• A few non stick gauze pads (great for abrasions)
• 1 Abdominal pad (for major bleeding)
• 1 pack of Steri strips plus benzoine for stick factor.
• 1 or two 4x6" tegaderms (for occlusive dressing but can also be cut down for dressings_

Everything above can be vacuum sealed to save space or put in a small ziplock with the air sucked out.

• 1-2 small gauze rolls (the ones I have fit inside my tape rolls/coban to save space)
• 1 3" roll of vetwrap/coban (really important for wrapping up a dog paw, great for keeping wounds clean and covered in the back country)
• 1 roll of transpore tape (great breathable sticky adhesive that doesn;t completely wreck your skin)
• Tube of super glue: if you have a medical pal that can get you dermabond, it's better

Ortho/general:

• SAM splint: cheap, flexible splint that you can use for a lot of things. I carry this flat against the spine support in my backpack so it takes up less room.
• Small cloth sling/strap: I ski and bike a lot so broken wrists/collarbones/elbows are fairly common and these are far more comfortable than a sling and swath. You may find a few cravats for sling and swatch more versatile as extra bandage/dressing material if you don't do stuff that breaks your arms regularly.
• 4" Ace wrap: pressure dressing, can be made into a tourniquet, wrap for joint support, stabilize a sam splinted appendage, whatever. Last used mine to wrap up a dog who put a stick through her chest.
• Roll of leukotape: this shit *****. Sticks to anything, great for blisters, great on dirty crusty hunter skin, tough enough to wrap up a broken boot or patch a garment, great great great.
  • or moleskin pads and a roll of Transpore 3m tape; also sticky and great but not as tough as leuko.
• Mylar blanket: because freezing to death in the great outdoors ain't great.
• 15-20ft of paracord preferably hiviz

 

[def90]

^ I get it.. the vast majority of people will survive anything that an REI first aid kit would allow you to treat. The reality is that the people that don't make it out are the people that encounter an unforeseen circumstance and bleed out before their in reach makes contact to the outside world. Shit happens, do you want to be prepared or not? We all know how to apply tape to a blister or a band aid to a cut but what happens when you trip while closing in on a bull and you have an arrow knocked and that arrow goes straight in to your thigh? Or your elk camp buddy trips and lets a round loose from his rifle and hits someone in their carotid? It's been shown over the last decade that an improperly applied tourniquet is less dangerous than dying.

There was the archery hunter that was shot and killed by a muzzleloader hunter this year in Colorado. A lot of unanswered questions. Was the archery hunter alive after the shot? Could he have been saved with the right training and equipment? Was the muzzleloader hunter that shot him prepared for more than a blister or abrasion?

Yes, most definitely take any first aid classes you can along with the Stop The Bleed classes I linked to above.

As hunters we have a higher probablilty of running in to a combat style wound than the average day hiker.

 

[justinspicher]

I used to carry a pretty comprehensive med kit, but lately its been nothing more than a adventure medical kit. I have been apart of some gnarly wounds in the backcountry but they are few and far between, nothing that needed more than what was in that kit

 

[long hunter]

I am surprised no one mentioned gal. size zip lock bags and duck tape.

 

[11boo]

You won’t need anything, till you do. It would suck to bleed out/or watch someone bleed out with nothing more than a booboo kit.
I have the skills, I will not waste them.

 

[Bighorner]

It has been interesting to read this post after reading the "if you don't carry hot, you shouldn't be carrying" thread. You guys should get together.

 

[fwafwow]

You won’t need anything, till you do. It would suck to bleed out/or watch someone bleed out with nothing more than a booboo kit.
I have the skills, I will not waste them.

+1

 

[Clearedhot1]

I carry the SWAT Tourniquet because I think I could apply it one-handed to an upper extremity on myself a little more easily, and I can also use it as a compression wrap if I just need something to hold a bandage in place with pressure. I make up for the size savings on deeper trips by carrying a couple ounces of iodine and a syringe for flushing wounds, however.

The SWAT T also works on kids. Most of the others don’t …too large.


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