Medical Kits

[Ben]

I'm looking to upgrade my medical kit but am having trouble finding anything but a bag of bandaids. Any suggestion for backcountry trauma kits? I'm looking for suture kits, CAT, gauze, bandages, antiseptic, and a snake bite kit all wrapped into one.

Thanks,

Ben

 

[gelton]

Adventure medical kits have always been pretty solid for me but I dont think they offer a snake bite kit.

This ones good for the basecamp: http://www.adventuremedicalkits.com/medical-kits/mountain/mountain-series-comprehensive.html

This ones good for the pack: http://www.adventuremedicalkits.com/medical-kits/ultralight-watertight/ultralight-watertight-5.html

 

[MountainTracker]

Tactical Medical Solutions

You can piece together a kit to fit your needs. No snake bite kits though.

 

[RyanC]

Ben,

Do you have experience with suturing? Even so, most lacerations in the field would be better off leaving open, irrigating, keeping clean, and allow healing by secondary intention. As far as a snake bite kit in the backcountry, the best thing you can bring is a Sat Phone, and maybe a pen to mark the bite site and progress of swelling. Keep the body part below your heart and remain as calm as you can.

I would shop around for the other things and put together your own kit. I put a video together for Train To Hunt with all of the things I recommend for a kit. I am at work but can post it up when I get home.

Ryan

 

[Bighub1]

+1 if your not used to suturing learning during a hunt is a bad idea. If you are used to suturing you should be in a field (medicine of some sort) where sutures and a hemostat are easily available. Every stitch placed in a dirty environment is another point if entry for bacteria. Also all sutures are not the same. Some sutures collect and harbor bacteria more than others so you should know what you are buying and what is to be used in certain situations. keep it simple.

 

[Mmcan]

I'm looking to upgrade my medical kit but am having trouble finding anything but a bag of bandaids. Any suggestion for backcountry trauma kits? I'm looking for suture kits, CAT, gauze, bandages, antiseptic, and a snake bite kit all wrapped into one.

Thanks,

Ben

Review what the recommendations are for "How to treat a snake bite". Many/most will simply recommend seeking immediate medical attention at an emergency room. Snake bite kits, sucking out venom, "Xing" the bite, tourniquets,… You won't find many experts saying that these are good ideas.

The best thing is to receive anti-venom ASAP.

Auerbach is one of the Wilderness Medical Society guru's. Read and heed what he says,…

http://www.outdoored.com/community/.../treating-rattlesnake-bites-in-the-field.aspx

So this should make your search for a medical kit easier.

 

[Mmcan]

http://stores.amp-3.net/amp-3-kits/

Amp-3 has some great pre-made kits that have all useful stuff in them and none of that garbage most FA kits contain. They are great people to deal with and their prices are on par with pretty much anything out there.

I made a sweet FA kit this winter using MR's IFAK bag and filled it with stuff from Amp-3. Been a long time coming for all the chainsaw and axe work I do alone in the bush.

If you're working with chainsaws, you'll need to be near a vehicle of some sort, so you can carry more resuscitation equipment with you. I would recommend that you learn how to manage acute hemorrhage due to a cut from your chainsaw or axe, and how to start an IV on yourself to hook up a couple of liters of IV fluid. Also have a way to signal for help if you are unable to get yourself to an ER. Power cutting tools, and axes, can inflict massive wounds and you can lose a lot of blood quickly. Be prepared. And always better to have a buddy with you while doing this kind of work.

 

[fire arrow]

Ok first of all if your not a paramedic working for a private ambulance company or the fire department, sorry or a nurse, your going to have to steal a couple of 18/16g caths and IV bags. That's up to you. In all honesty your FA kit needs to simple but effective. Most deep lac's can be controlled with stuffing 4x4's into the wound and applying direct pressure until you can wrap it with cling. Other lac's, clean and cover. If you have to use a CAT your up poop creek.

What I carry is a hand full of sterile 4x4's, couple rolls of cling, assorted size of band aids, alcohol wipes, antibiotic ointment, Electrolyte pills, Advil PM, Imodium, tweezers, Chapstick, safety pins, sm roll of duct tape, lighter, and Moleskin. Once again I bring what I will probably need to use.

Think about what you will use, and maybe not worry about the O my god event. What it really boils down too is what you are trained on, how comfortable you are with your gear, and how creative you can be if you have too.

 

[16Bore]

I've never found a kit thats had exactly what I wanted. I seems a 200 piece kit translates to 198 bandaids and 2 packs of aspirin. Mine is pretty much pieced together. Opt for butterfly bandages instead of sutures. My understanding is most if the time it makes chit worse if not cleaned properly. My brother did stitch a guy up in his kitchen once though. Said its pretty fun.

 

[Mike7]

Disclaimer: the following info is my opinion only, but based upon years of treating people in the field for medical problems. I think anyone who plans on treating someone other than themselves in the field should take it upon themselves to learn as much as they can about these things, but each situation can be a little different. There is some good info above, such as the general notion of "leaving the sutures at home", but like any internet forum, there is some misleading info as well. I am always willing to learn something new, if somebody has some evidence which contradicts anything that I write below.

Most superficial wounds that inexperienced people want to suture in the field can be treated with a butterfly type bandage or a compression bandage only, with neither being as important as the cleansing that should occur first, particularly if you plan on sealing the skin with a butterfly bandage or sutures. If the wound extends into the deep subcutaneous tissues, are you going to be able to clean it appropriately?...is there bone surface or tendon sheath involved? Do you know what the risks are of suturing up that particular location of the body, etc? Some of the medical kits look high speed and sexy, even to me, but most are filled with crap you don't need. Read Fire Arrow's post for something more realistic and useable, in my opinion.

Also, leave the IV at home. The only thing an IV is going to do in the field for most people is dilute your clotting factors after major hemorrhagic trauma or increase your intracranial pressure after major head trauma. Unless you are about to die and enroute to a trauma center, you do not want to do these things. The mechanisms leading to shock are protective responses by the body...if those become overwhelmed in the field far from a trauma center, then you are probably screwed anyway. If you are worried about shock from vomiting/crapping yourself to death either here or abroad (cholera is the worst for causing this by diarrhea), then bring something to make a solution like the WHO electrolye replacement solution that you can sip on, and you can even throw a few phenergan or zofran anti-emetic tablets in your kit as well if you are worried (don't give the phenergan to your kids though).

There are some other threads on here about medical kits that contain some good info. It is nice to have a kit, but the knowledge needed to go with the kit is often more important...and most times the best thing to do is "do no harm". If you are bringing a kit, especially one for more than just yourself, think about what are the most common things you might run into from a medical standpoint, how many are in your group and what are your weight allowances, do you know how to reach help, and how far are you from help.

Are you really going to be able to walk out with a broken ankle because you carried in a SAM splint?...or would some duct tape, a couple of sticks, and a satellite communicater be a better idea? These are questions everyone has to ask for themselves. And, there is one more important but true cliche, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure".

 

[Ben]

Do you have experience with suturing?

Yes.

I'm going to go with an Adventure Medical Kit, take all the junk out, add gauze, CAT, etc, and call it good.

I'm fine carrying stuff I will probably not use. It is more for peace of mind that I can help someone in need if the situation occurs.

 

[Bighub1]

I guess I don't get too worked up over my med kit. It's probably more than most but less than quite a few others. During an emergency common sense and a level head go further than a well stocked EM kit.
Remember all bleeding stops eventually. And the only two types of bleeding that scare me are me bleeding and bleeding that I can hear. Both are bad.

 

[Becca]

I redid our first aid kit sometime last winter to drop unnecessary weight and add a few simple gear repair items (that thread is here: http://www.rokslide.com/forums/showthread.php?2412-First-aid-emergency-kit-overhaul ). While I don't have emergency first responder/wilderness training, I am an RN with advanced cardiac life support and cardiac/vascular background. Despite my medical knowledge, I have decided that it's not really feasible to carry everything I would potentially need to respond to every possible field emergency. In the event of a life threatening injury, I would help stabilize my partner the best I could and call for help. Thus our kit has what I feel are a limited amount of basic supplies, while still keeping the weight down.

Medical Supplies
Moleskin 1 4x4" piece
Large Band aids-4
Small band aids-4
Non adherent dressings- 2
4"x4" gauze pads-4
2"x2" gauze pads-2
Triple antibiotic ointment packets- 4
Alcohol pads-6
Sting relief pads-2
Cotton tipped applicators-2
Nitrile Gloves- 1 pair
Quick Clot Pack 3.5"x3.5"-1
Needle nose tweezers-1 set
Derma bond applicator- 1
4' of 1" transpore tape
10cc syringe- 1
Den temp temporary dental filling- One kit

Medications
Alkaseltzer- 3 packets
Tylenol- 4 packets (500mg each)
Ibuprofen- 4 packets (400mg each)
Vicodin- (5/3251) bottle left over from dental procedure, probably around 20 pills
Benadryl- 4 packets (50mg each)
Diflucan- 1 pill (150mg)

Repair Kit
Sewing kit: 3 needles, assorted thread, 3 buttons of varying sizes, 6 safety pins, small scissors
Superglue
AquaSeal UV

Everyone has a different opinions on what you need to carry, based on their medical background and where they hunt. Keep in mind that many of our trips are fly-in or way off the road system...running back to town for supplies or emergency dental work isn't a realistic option, or at the very least ends the trip. Also keep in mind that we carry other survival gear (fire starting material, para cord, lighters matches, sat phone, etc). I usually also have a small bottle with Tylenol and ibuprofen either in my bino pouch or my bathroom bag.

 

[Becca]

Great post above Mike7, with good advice based upon sound medical and backcountry experience.

Are you really going to be able to walk out with a broken ankle because you carried in a SAM splint?...or would some duct tape, a couple of sticks, and a satellite communicater be a better idea? These are questions everyone has to ask for themselves. And, there is one more important but true cliche, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure".

Having found myself on the side of a mountain with a fractured leg, I can tell you that the sat phone and ability to shelter in place (if it had come to that) were much more useful items than a SAM splint would have been.

 

[Mike7]

Thanks Becca. I wish I had 1/10th of the information and experience about hunting, archery, etc. as I do with medical stuff, but at least it keeps all of the hunting stuff extremely interesting.

I think my solo backcountry medical kit contains only the following in a small ziploc bag placed in a Kifaru pullout (I'm probably forgetting a thing or two, but it is not a big kit at all): tweezeers and scissors on a tiny leatherman (for splinters, applying steristips, etc), athletic tape, 4x4's, benadryl, baby ASA, naproxen (tablets in a straw as learned on Rokslide to keep them from getting crushed), and tincture of benzoin with steristrips. But I would add an albuterol inhaler and an epipen if I had a medical history necessitating these items, or have for instance doxycycline if hiking in the tropics, etc).

Although not technically in my medical kit, I always carry the following stuff on longer trips and even often with just day hunts in one of my other kits, and which one could consider basically preventative medical/survival gear: chapstick, dental floss, baby wipes, skin lubricant, water purification supplies/filter, satellite communicator, GPS, eyeglasses to back up contact lenses, pen and paper, orange reflective ribbon, fire starting supplies, ridgerest short foam pad, wide brimmed booney hat, rain jacket, pack cover or tarp, and an insulating layer.

Becca, if your hospital gives you some CME money yearly, you should see if there is a civillian wilderness medical course that you can take with the funds they provide...and then take a cheap online course to get the info you really need for work. There are some fun wilderness medical courses out there. One of the courses that I attended, included a lot of rafting and some mountain climbing, with talks at lunch or dinner while at the riverside (spouses could come along and take the course for no credit and for 1/2 price I think, and thus participate in all of the fun stuff and just those talks that interested them). Howard Donner is a Wilderness Medicine lecturer who was a lot of fun at one of the courses I took, and he has done a lot of high altitude research up on Denali interestingly.

 

[Craig Van Arsdale]

I build my own and carry it in a Kifaru UL small pull out.Here is what I carry. Most might say its too little but its what has worked fine for me.

1 patch of moleskin
3 powder packs of pedilyte
chlorine water treatment tabs
2X2 gauze pads qty.2
6 bandaids assorted sizes
Dermabond medical super glue
Pill bottle wrapped in duct tape with Vicodin, Excedrina and Prilosec in it
2 alcohol pads
miniature set of tweezers

Between those items and carrying a SAT phone I feel pretty safe. Never got more than cuts, scratches and bruises in the backcountry but this lightweight kit gives me comfort when im out without feeling like the GIF is getting too out of control.

 

[Bonedalien]

very good thread, a lot of info here i need to reread and work into my kit. mike7,and becca,thanks.

 

[Spike_Sniper]

I like the REI kits. Then just change out a few things and I add quick clot.

 

[hammer0419]

Go onto Amazon.com. they have a lot of nice kits in all sizes. They have quite a few with basic emergency supplies including clotting bandages.

 

[larryschwartz]

For those who add QwikClot or something similar PLEASE make sure you know how to use it and when not to use it. Also, keep in mind that they expire after three years, per the manufacturer, so they have to be replaced after a few years.