First Aid Thoughts
I’m looking through various every day carry sources and I notice something that is very common. A lot of folk carry some form of first aid kit. A lot of them seem to have very redundant and in my opinion pointless items. I’m sure that there are even folk that carry portable defibrillators.
What do I do for first aid in an urban environment?
Nothing.
I have never had a reason to carry any sort of first aid kit when I’m in the city. The worst thing that has happened to me in the city is I graze my knee or hand if I trip and fall. Hardly something to break out a trauma kit for. I just curse a bit, wipe off any dirt and move on. I am considering putting a few plasters in a ziplock bag, just in case.
What about in a wilderness situation?
Very minimal.
I have had exactly one incident where I needed a plaster when in the woods. I was being stupid and cut myself with my knife. Again, hardly life threatening but I got a plaster from V, whacked it on and went about the rest of the day.
If you are in the wilderness and something truely bad happens, no amount of plasters or over the counter painkillers will help. The best you could probably do is make a splint for a broken bone, make yourself comfortable and attract as much attention as possible.
All I have in my wilderness first aid kit is a few plasters of various sizes. No painkillers, I find they do nothing for me. May add anti-diarrhoea medicine cause that seems like it could be useful. The complete kit takes up very little room. Less than a pocket pack of tissues.
Just some thoughts that popped into my head.
Medical tape, gauze. That’s what I use to fix problems now. Maybe some large non-stick bandages for something serious, need to get some of those.
You need to balance what has happened to you in the past and what could happen to you. You’re right that a lot of folks lean too heavily on the “what could happen” scenario and end up carrying excessively large kits. I think it’s also important to really hash out how you want to define urban and wilderness. In the middle of a large city, you will probably have made contact with an EMT within 10 minutes of EMS being activated, which is going to influence the kit you carry. But, for myself, I also consider “rural” areas to be urban — areas where it may take 45 minutes for care to reach me and other hour till we reach the hospital. I only carry one urban first aid kit, so its designed to deal with all these things. You also have to choose if you want to be prepared for the potential disaster scenario. Again, with this one, lots of folks will end up putting together excessively large kits. Still, there is always a chance (and the chance is probably heightened in an urban environment) that you could find yourself in a scenario where local EMS is overloaded and you yourself have to take care of whatever injuries you have sustained, at least temporarily.
You also have to consider the Good Samaritan thing and decide if you want to provide aid to others. My urban kit includes a mini-CPR mask. Obviously that’s not a self-aid item, but something I carry in case I have to perform CPR on somebody else. I also always carry gloves in both urban and wilderness kits, which are (almost) useless when I’m taking care of myself, but critical when caring for others.
I agree with what Avagdu said. For both urban and wilderness settings, the bulk of my kits are made up of dressings (sterile gauze, nonadhesive dressings, etc) and a bit of tape. The main difference between the two kits is the amount and size of the dressings. I’ve never carried drugs like ibuprofen or benadryl. The only vaguely drug-like thing I tend to carry is Emergen-C for electrolytes.
Sanitation is also crucial. Slapping a bandage on a small wound in an urban environment probably is not going to cause you a lot of trouble and, if it does, you’ll be sorry but you’ll have easy access to more definitive care. But if you bandage a wound — even a small one — without cleaning it in a wilderness environment, you stand a high chance of infection and could turn what was a small nick into a life-threatening injury. In the urban environment, a few alcohol prep pads will probably be all you need. In the wilderness, alcohol prep pads and a syringe are a decent minimum. Also consider a topical antibiotic, like Neosporin. A wilderness first aid kit should still be able to fit in your pocket.
Definitely take something to deal with diarrhoea, its really easy to get and really puts a crimp on your time outdoors.
You absolutely need to have a couple of big dressings/pads a bandage and some tape. Trust me that you will be glad of it when you have slip and put a big hole in yourself (or your mate)
Blood loss is one of those things which can be straightforward to treat, and mean the difference between life and death.
Equally CPR trainig+/shield are a big must on the stopping people from dying front.
I caution against anti-diarrhea meds. They tend to be overused.
Diarrhea, like most of your body’s natural processes, is a positive reaction. It is most often caused by a bacterial or parasite infection. In that case, the diarrhea is your body’s attempt to purge the bacteria/parasite from your body. Taking an anti-diarrhea medication like Imodium is like shoving a rubber stopper up your butt. It stops the diarrhea, doing nothing to address the actual cause of the problem. All you’re doing is allow that bacteria or that parasite more time to hang out inside your body and mess around. The only time such a medication is indicated is if you have to move or die, and the diarrhea is so frequent as to prevent your ability to move. As a Wilderness EMT, probably the only time that I’m going to administer Imodium to a patient is if the patient is shitting so frequently that it hinders the evacuation. Then I’ll plug the patient up and get him out to a hospital.
A far better solution for the common, mild cases of diarrhea is to simply let it run its course. Of course, you’ll be pooing out more water than usual so you’ll also want to increase your water intake to compensate. (You’ll see a lot of people claim that diarrhea is a leading cause of death among children, especially in less “developed” nations. It’s not actually the diarrhea that’s killing them, but the dehydration that results from it.) Whenever you increase water input, you also want to increase the amount of electrolytes that you’re consuming. That’s where the aforementioned Emergen-C comes in, or you can eat some salty nuts, salty jerky, or drink a salty bullion cube. Or you can explicity carry salt.
Of course, the best treatment for diarrhea is prevention. Like I said, the most common causes are bacteria and parasites. In the wilderness, your bacteria comes from poor sanitation and parasites from dirty water. So getting your water from the cleanest possible source and then treating it properly, as well as making a point of frequent washing of hands (particular after you poo and before and after touching any food items or cooking kit) is going to prevent most diarrhea.
If you do want to take something to treat diarrhea, then you want to make sure whatever it is is not just plugging you up, but actually addressing the infection. In my experience, I’ve found plain old grapefruit seed extract to work best. The GSE will attack bad bacteria, while leaving the good bacteria in your stomach alone (in the wilderness, I think it’s particularly important to make sure that you’re not taking something that’s going to wipe out everything in your stomach. You need that good bacteria). In addition to treating diarrhea, I use GSE to treat water and clean my toothbrush and water carriers (both at home and in the field). If the GSE doesn’t do anything for you, you could have a viral infection, which is a bigger problem.
Cheers for the comments guys. I have moved my wilderness FAK to my EDC as it is most useful there. When I get money, I’ll look into making up a proper wilderness kit. Gauze, tape, plasters, alcohol wipes, that sort of thing.