Sunday, June 19, 2016

The Blow Out Kit

As you may already know, I am finishing up week one of my two week Reserve Annual Training.  The first week was spent with the normal mundane housekeeping stuff that we have not had time to complete.  If you think that you have it bad with the occasional but, nonetheless, obtrusive corporate HR training requirements, you have not seen what the Army is forced to sit through with the quarterly gauntlet of mind rotting, tax payer subsidized, power point slides and online courses.  Not to make light of the epidemic of veteran suicides, but after you have sat through your hundredth session of quarterly sexual harassment or master resiliency training, hanging yourself by your own safety reflective belt just for a diversion seems pretty attractive.

One thing of note, however, is that I took a refresher Combat Lifesavers course and it gave me the inspiration to publish a series of posts relating directly to the immediate life saving actions that you need to take after an active shooter incident.  This will be coming from the meathead perspective of  the military, but you can easily adapt them to your situation, whatever first responder role that may be.  This will be another easily digestible, slow burn of posts that describe what you can do at a very basic level as a first responder of an active shooting incident or explosion.  Surprisingly, it is actually quite a lot.

"Legal Disclaimer" up front
One caveat is that these actions can be performed by anyone that has the approved hands on training.  The skill illustrated on this blog are for educational purposes only and should not be interpreted as the same thing as real world training.  This does not give you the qualifications to perform emergency medical treatment any more than watching Scooby Do makes you a private investigator.  It would be a good idea to read on your local or state interpretation of the Good Samaritan laws before you get yourself in a situation a high priced lawyer cannot get you out of.


The Stuff


First things first, we need to cover the very modest equipment that you need to provide this care.  On every Soldier's armor, you will find the Individual First Aid Kit (IFAK). Please reference the picture below or you can go to this link for the pdf.






In short, you will need the following items:
1 container/pouch
2 Pair latex gloves
2 Chest Seals (H&H, Bolin, HyFin)
1 roll surgical tape
Sterile Gauze
Fine point Sharpie Marker

You will also want:
Additional gauze

For SHTF scenarios:
Pill pack with the following doses:
Mobic 15mg
Tylenol 2, 650mg
Moxifloxacin, 400mg

What it is and what it isn't
That is the "stuff" for one person's individual kit. You may want to have a larger first responder bag that can handle more than one incident/victim.  The IFAK will get you out of most trouble given that you can get to a hospital in a decent amount of time.  It will not treat heart attacks, strokes, poisonings, spine injuries, and other much more common life threatening incidents.  This kit is strictly for the aftermath of gunshot wounds, blunt trauma, compound fractures, and other life threatening but treatable incidents that are common to the battlefield.

I would caution you to keep your boo-boo kit separate from your blow out kit.  You will not want your band aids and Imodium to become jumbled in with the actual life saving materials.  Every tool has its place.  I would also encourage you to have at least two CAT tourniquets either in or attached to your Go Bag or directly attached to your gear/rifle.  Whatever's clever for you. 


Also,  if you are a III Percent vendor that sells any of the equipment listed above, shoot me an email (not the Georgemason, but the Sipeystreet account),  and would be more than happy to link to your products. 





12 comments:

wirecutter said...

Get ahold of my little brother at the contact info I passed on to you earlier. He's got several links for supplies and instruction that any layman can understand.
-Kenny Lane

Anonymous said...

Just put my first IFAK together...LONG overdue. You can buy a lot of this stuff on Amazon for decent prices....JFYI and build your own kit. Also if you have a vacuum sealer kit, you can "shrink wrap" and compress a lot of bandages (dollar store usually has rolls of gauze on the cheap) into a small brick.

Crustyrusty said...

Wondering why Mobic is on the list instead of other OTC NSAIDs?

Dutchman6 said...

Crustyrusty,

The answer is because it is what the Army uses. I cannot give you the science behind the use of that particular drug. It is just a cocktail of an anti-inflammatory, pain reliever, and antibiotic that is given. From what I gather from speaking with the semi-professionals, the pill pack is never available to be given out. It is still doctrine to administer the pack to patients before they are sent on their way, but it just never done because no one ever seems to have it.

As it appplies to non-perscription holders, I would think that the normal "around the counter" drugs like fish cipro and amoxicillin, have their own reactions with the other drugs. My limited biology training is insufficient to give you an answer either way, but perhaps a carefully worded conversation with your pharmacist could satisfy that curiosity.

If anyone has experience with the pill pack, I would love to hear it.

Dutchman6 said...

Ken,

I'll send the next one his way before I publish it. This one was pretty cut and dry.

Thanks so much for the recommendation.

Anonymous said...

For one ready-made BOK, see Great Lake Survival Company, at:
http://www.greatlakesurvival.com/medical-rescue-kits.html

Witold Pilecki said...

Matt,

Good stuff for people to have, but I'm not really sure I want someone with little to no medical training poking a needle between my ribs to re-inflate a lung. Also, if the NPA kits don't include surgical lube (ours in the civilian EMS world don't) then it should be included separately. NPA's don't go in very nicely dry, if at all. We love the CAT tourniquets, and several major bleeding emergency calls have been mitigated with their use. The best part is the ability to apply it to yourself if necessary.

Stay safe at Summer Camp. I forgot about the spending time going over wills, financial planning, and family crap. You have "Death by Power Point", but I was old school with overhead projector slides, blackboards, and paper handouts.

Anonymous said...

What size nasal trumpet should we be carrying for most average size folks? There seem to be 5mm, 6.5 and 7.5mm sizes.

Anonymous said...

To the high priced lawyer drama....
I know this much. If a person is hurt, possibly dying, it doesn't matter to me what legislated legalese exists or doesn't exist. My conscience and my soul and my first principles matter to me. I will what pi am able to help save at life and if I am sued into oblivion for that, then so be it. I certainly won't just stand idle and watch, or worse yet just watch someone die, without trying to save a life.

Defending myself, whether it be in the moment from an aggressor by use of arms or setting on a stand in a courtroom explaining my actions, is something that I live by. I will stand down any of it, for anyone.

Some call that stupid but you know what? To me, not doing so is what is so pathetically stupid. Not doing so is conceding birthright.

Anonymous said...

To the high priced lawyer drama....
I know this much. If a person is hurt, possibly dying, it doesn't matter to me what legislated legalese exists or doesn't exist. My conscience and my soul and my first principles matter to me. I will what pi am able to help save at life and if I am sued into oblivion for that, then so be it. I certainly won't just stand idle and watch, or worse yet just watch someone die, without trying to save a life.

Defending myself, whether it be in the moment from an aggressor by use of arms or setting on a stand in a courtroom explaining my actions, is something that I live by. I will stand down any of it, for anyone.

Some call that stupid but you know what? To me, not doing so is what is so pathetically stupid. Not doing so is conceding birthright.

Anonymous said...

Mike, i appreciate your commonsense attention to these kinds of useful posts. Its too bad the detractors to your posts miss the point that for them being very useful info, its over the heads of those with no training to use it, nor an inclination to get trained to use them. Thanks again for another time and productive post.

Sign me, Neal Jensen

Anonymous said...

Friend who's a very experienced EMT say they mostly use FR21-24 for Nasal Trumpet sizes. JFYI....if you're ordering.