First aid kit for New England

[PfcAJ]

Also, I'd stray away from administering meds to anyone. Its too easy to cause an allergic reaction, or the patient have some other contraindication to that medication.

Stablilize, comfort and transport.

 

[Sherbear]

Not really.....

Here's where we all get to sit back and call me a geek. I keep an inventory list of everything in the kit (which by BTW, is a medium size Soft Side Tackle Bag, with plastic trays to kep things organized) and to save time, I put in a word doc.

So to put here it was a simple cut and paste.....no great effort.

Bailey, From your additional items I keep these in a small "personal" bag that gets thrown in the first aid kit when I'm out and about, otherwise it sits in my briefcase most of the time.

Finger nail clippers
Finger nail file
Tweezers
Hemostats
Medium Magnifying glass
Aspirin
Tylenol 3
Epi Pen x 2
Benedril
Caladril Lotion



Storm,

Great idea abou the benedril and claldril lotion. How about the "best remedy" for jelly fish sting, besides not to swim with them!! That's my biggiest fear, I think, and would want that sting to stop ASAP!

 

[Sherbear]

Also, I'd stray away from administering meds to anyone. Its too easy to cause an allergic reaction, or the patient have some other contraindication to that medication.

Stablilize, comfort and transport.

"quote by JOHNL, page 1"
class can go a long way, but most of it is pretty common sense. Just remember not to put yourself or anyone else in harms way to help. Rule number one is always "if it's wet, sticky, and not yours...don't touch it!"




He could not have said it better.........HA

 

[mccabe]

Complete some DAN courses. These are very good training courses and very useful when dealing with emergencies. Contact your local DAN instructor for details.

Andrew

 

[Storm]

Folks,

I've taken quite a few (eight seperate courses) in emergency response, first aid, and sustained aid. I haven't yet taken a rescue diver course, so I cannot speak to the diving related aspects, but I did take one of the dive agency's first response course and I would not suggest it to anyone.

One thing these agency type courses rely on is an assumption that if you're on a boat, then the boat staff is properly trained, and that if you're shore diving you're close to an emergency room.

As a boater, camper, hiker, hunter, fisher and diver, and part time outdoor educator up here in the land of the moose, my experience has been that you are not usually close to either ambulance services or an emergency room, and in merely stabilizing and seeking care, the mantra of most of these short courses, may not be sufficient.

That doesn't mean that every outdoor junkie needs to bea fully trained EMT, but possessing some more advanced training certaintly wouldnpt hurt in a situatoin like being two to three hours off shore, or a day or two back in the bush.


Here's an example of the type of courses that I have taken followed by the basic Red Cross course. Compare the two and you'll see the difference.

http://www.wildernessfirstaid.ca/courses_essential_first_aid.htm
http://www.wildernessfirstaid.ca/courses_advanced_first_aid.htm

http://www.redcross.ca/article.asp?id=000637&tid=021

PfcAJ
I too generally would stay away from administering meds unless the patient is able to tell me either through communication or a medic alert any allergies they have. the meds I carry in my bag are for MY use, and a card in my first aid kit tells someone who may be using my kit on me, what meds they can give me.....the epi for example.


Cheers

 

[piikki]

Don't know if I missed this but one useful package to add to a kit on top of the ones mentioned is glucose tablets or something else nice and immediately sugar-pumping. When you crawl out of the cold water exhausted after a long day, and notice you are in the middle of nowhere with nothing else but water in the car - it can be a nice way to avoid a headache or help a buddy along... let alone if someone is really struggling with low blood sugar, and nobody has nothing else to offer.

 

[DBailey]

Also, I'd stray away from administering meds to anyone. Its too easy to cause an allergic reaction, or the patient have some other contraindication to that medication.

Stablilize, comfort and transport.

Correct, open up the first aid kit, let them grab the bottle, let them open it, let them take their own meds. At least that is how I was taught in first aid (concerning nitro tablets and aspirin for heart attacks). I know some first aid/cpr classes teach that you can put the med in the person's hand and they have to pop it in their mouth.

 

[Storm]

Correct, open up the first aid kit, let them grab the bottle, let them open it, let them take their own meds. At least that is how I was taught in first aid (concerning nitro tablets and aspirin for heart attacks). I know some first aid/cpr classes teach that you can put the med in the person's hand and they have to pop it in their mouth.

Alot of that is not about helping the patient, nor is it about protecting the patient from potential reactions to medication, it about protecting the first aid giver from a potential lawsuit. (Yet anouther reason to vote all lawyers off the island)

I am always aware of where I am and if there is a good samaratian law for that area, (it's part of my pre-trip research) but even if there is no such law for that area, if it came down to life or death situation, I would, and have in the past, done everything in my power to help keep the patient alive...even if it means hitting them an epi pen when they could not do it themselves.

It's just the way I was built.

 

[JohnL]

It's one thing if someone is having an allergic reaction and is incapable of using their own epi-pen or ana-kit (do they still sell ana-kit?) They have that med with them for a reason and giving it to them probably isn't going to make the situation any worse. Nitro? Probably wouldn't be diving with them, but I would hope that they aren't just popping them without monitoring their BP.

The slippery slope is over the counter meds(OTC). Too many people think that OTC meds are completely safe because they are OTC. I have seen plenty of cases where someone will take something that a friend has only to find out that it interacts badly with their other meds. Usually they know about the problem but "weren't thinking about it at the time." Is that always the case? No...but it does happen.

I do carry some basic meds in my first aid kit, but mostly for myself. I would be pretty hesitant to hand them out to strangers I met on a boat or at the beach (not just because I used to date a lawyer).

 

[cummings66]

Back to the super glue thing. The medical grade superglue is more pure than most of what you'll find at the hardware store, although some of the model airplane stuff is pretty good.

If you don't know it, the liquid bandages you find at the local store, it's CA, superglue for the rest of us.

It works by the way, I've closed up some cuts with it on myself and have been pleased with the end results. I would guess it's not very useful for a scuba diver however because if your skin becomes real wet and saturated it will turn loose of the glue and the cut will reopen.