Hey everyone, so I want to have a couple simple first aid kits on hand, for different situations, but I’m at a loss for what would be actually useful to put in there.
Most Spec-Ops-Navy-SAS-Seal-LARPers mainly on youtube that I’ve looked to for advice on what to put in it go full operator and suggest stuff like tourniquets that I would be extremely doubtful would ever be used in day-to-day situations. Of course its useful to have things you need that one time despite not needing them the previous 99, but I’m trying to be more realistic. (The description at the beginning of the paragraph was mainly a lil jokey for myself :P )
Back to the serious stuff, essentially the way I see it I have 3 distinct categories of “emergency” that I will ever encounter in my region and lifestyle:
- Day to day (keep in daily bag) such as office at work (for example getting a minor cut in the office kitchen during lunch, or getting a headache that is just strong enough to make me take a painkiller or two)
- On the streets (keep in car) e.g. if I find a biker/cyclist (mainly delivery drivers where I am) who’s had a minor tumble and is scraped up, but otherwise fine. Since most of these guys are migrants, its pretty rare for people in my country to stop to help unless the guy is literally down on the ground not moving. Most will just call 112 and go about their day). In this example something to wipe down the road rash is what I mean.
- When I go out hiking (keep in hiking bag). I’ve recently started hiking, but the area I live in doesn’t have the super remote areas or any wildlife which is dangerous
Based on the examples above for what I believe are my 3 different levels of emergency, what would you recommend to keep in each first aid kit?
I should note that I’m not first aid certified, though I have suggested to my employer that we go through the training program at some point soon and got positive feedback on the idea (there’s a government-funded program for employees in my country to go through various training programs in topics ranging from tech to stuff like first aid)
Thanks in advance, and sorry for the kinda long rambly post
I can see your point, and for the record Im in Cyprus, but (and in part I take responsibility for wrongly estimating what an everyday kit would be for - someone else mentioned a first aid kit isn’t really for the general day to day boo boos) I’m genuinely not looking for any actual survival or life threatening type stuff, which it seems a lot of the answers in here tend towards. For example, I genuinely can’t imagine any situation I would find myself in where I would need to use a tourniquet. If I do find myself faced with someone that hurt I would already be on the phone with emergency services getting an ambulance there asap (still haven’t even heard of anyone who has needed that kind of care here). I am mainly interested in the stuff that just makes certain normal situations where someone else or myself is hurt in a minor way, a bit easier and less miserable to deal with. I guess I got influenced by my category 3 “hiking” too much and used the words “first aid kit”, which mislead people as to what I am actually looking for. A better way to ask the question might have been “What medical/health items do you carry around with you every day to make your life slightly easier?”
An example (which again I would put in the hiking category, or the “road” (car) category at least, is a pair of decent tweezers. Sure it won’t really help if someone snaps a bone in half, but realistically how often does that happen, and how often does it happen where I am located that someone hasn’t already called for an ambulance. It sure is welcome however if you get a splinter and don’t feel like asking around if anyone has clean tweezers xD
Edit: I do want to do the first aid course, not just for work but also because I think its an invaluable skill to have, but its too expensive for me to do privately, it just makes sense to do it through my employer, but you know how this stuff goes. They’ve got a thousand other things to deal with rather than organise that stuff, so while they seem super positive about the whole thing its just always at the back of the mind of the guy who needs to arrange it.
Car accident. Some fuckup using powered tools someone is not used to. Bad fall.
There is a lot of injuries that are not necessarilly “he stepped on a landmine”, which is probably what person calling having a tourniquet “SAS larping” has in mind.
Being on the phone with ambulance is nice, but they are not going to help if the person bleeds out before they arrive.
For the non-critical items, you can look for inspiration at some commercially produced kits - https://www.lifesystems.co.uk/collections/first-aid-kits