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Instead of an Israeli Bandage, I would go with an H&H, Olaes, or just an NAR Trauma dressing. Don’t get me wrong, the Israeli is great especially T2 or T3 for capability. However, other emergency trauma dressings pack smaller and/or are easier to use, especially in a self-care situation.
If wanting to save space an emergency trauma dress dressing could potentially double as an Ace bandage.
Hemostatic gauze is a little expensive but I think it is definitely worth it because of its ability to help stop bleeding quicker
A SWAT-T tourniquet could also be a consideration. I would not use it to replace a CAT or SOF-T, but it could be used for tying splint, additional bandage wrap, sling, as well as second TQ if required.
I want to “tap” the great medical knowledge and skills we have in this forum.
Recently, I was asked by a god friend to help him finalizing the “Go Bags” for his familiy. They were part of the Christmas gifts in 2020, and are stuffed with supplies for 1-3 days including water + purification, food, small cook set, tools including lightning + signaling + navigation, clothing, shelter + warmth, hygiene, electronics, PPE.
What’s missing, and you may guess this from this threads subject, is a size/weight optimized medical kit.
Aim is to provide each Go Bag user with medical stuff (all got first aid training / refresher courses recently), to help them deal with small (blisters, cuts, diarrhea) and serious (broken bones, stabbing/shooting wounds) issues.
Basically, anything that would hinder them from going from point A to point B within a specific time-frame of 24 (up to a 72) hours in urban / sub-urban / outdoor environments – be it in a get home or bug out scenario.
It is expected to have delayed access to professional medical help after a certain time (a few hours up to 2 days); no Zombie apocalypse, sorry 😀
Note: there is a larger medical bag carried by the family that is aimed for helping (each) other that contains the more serious stuff (to deal with airway, breathing, etc.), while this IFAK focuses on self-application.
Coverage of MARCH:
Massive Hemorrhage: yes
Airway: no
Respiratory: no
Circulation: yes
Head wound: yes
Heat loss: yes
Coverage of C-ABCDE:
Critical Bleeding: yes
Airway: no
Breathing: no
Circulation: yes
Disability: yes
Evacation: no
Exposure: yes
Note: Those protocol marked with “no” do not need to be covered by the IFAK, mostly due to the fact that some treatments (e.g. NPA) are not self-applicable or that the skill/training is missing (e.g. sutures).The kit should enable each member to deal with the following medical challenges:
blisters (e.g. feet)
splinters (e.g. from wood or metal)
abrasions and scrapes (e.g. slip down a hill)
bruise (e.g. working with tools)
sprains and strains (e.g. running or jumping on uneven ground)
extremities fracture (e.g. fallen down some height)
rip fracture
cuts, small and medium-sized (e.g. sliced finger while preparing food or fire wood)
burns of first and second degree / up to 5% of the body surface = half arm or foot (e.g. fire/cooking or touching hot surfaces like motors/exhaust pipe)
stabbing wound (e.g. knife attack)
shooting wound (e.g. gun attack)
bites (e.g. dog or snake attack)
stings (e.g. mosquitos, ticks, bees, wasp)
corrosive injury (e.g. handling with chemicals like acids or alkali)
traumatic / amputation wound (e.g. serious extremities damage)
muscle cramps
exhaustion
headache
toothache
cerebral concussion
pepper-sprayed (usually face)
diarrhea
common cold
fever
wound infection
food poisoning
allergic reactions
I’m sure I forget a ton of other possible medical treatment required injures and situations while at the same time I may have already made it impossible to have a “small” IFAK to deal with (most) of above mentioned.Some IFAK content is obvious like band-aids and a tourniquet, while others need to be discussed – example: use gauze pads and an ace bandage instead of a trauma dressing. Would this be useful? Saved size vs. capabilities, pros/cons?
I hope you see where I’m heading to: what’s really required in an IFAK?
(One question with 1,000’s of correct answers, i guess 😎 ).Thanks for your time reading through this long text and thanks in advance for contributing your ideas & recommendations for a Go Bag size/weight optimized IFAK focusing on self-application, and why / how to use it and what limitations this (improvised) method may have.
Stay safe!
Update – content considered / covered so far:
moleskin (c) / comped (c)
tweezers
ace bandage OR self-adhesive bandage
band-aids in different sizes
steri strips (c)
burn-shield (c)
gauze pads
Israeli trauma bandage
chest seal
Tourniquet (Cat Gen 7 or SOFTT-W)
Ibuprofen
Loperamide
space blanket
trauma sheers
Leukoplast (c)Please add/comment!
Droid Motorola Razr. The biggest plus is a side loading SIM card. When I fly overseas, I can remove and instal a prepaid Sim card from whatever country I’m in and make cheap local calls to the group I deploy with (we all do the same thing). Works really well.
I also like having a removable storage drive (I’m using 32g sandisk)
iPhone 5 (after a few years with an iPhone 3GS). It was not a very big change in how I use/what I use the phone for. I have gotten used to the nearly-ubiquitous internet access and do like it. (Well, at least enough to pay for the monthly data plan.)
I have it set up with a custom kernel that only onlines the cores when the demand goes up. Only one or two cores are in use for most tasks but if you are doing something like gaming all 4 will come online. If I am not using my phone heavily I can get two days battery life.
Great ideas, but too large for my needs. The original kit was the size of a thickish wallet.
Even the ton they use now won’t work as well for me- rigid box does not allow you to stuff ‘just one more thing’ in it.
Out of the box thinking… pencil case
The HART Outdoor Day Hike First Aid Kit is small and opens on 3 sides. I’ve had one branded as REI for a few years (and have just replaced what used) and the pouch/bag is still in pretty good shape..
I feel in love with the contents and pouch of the Adventure Medical 0.5 kit. The pouch unzipped on three sides, making it really easy to find what I needed without dumping everything like a plastic bag or typical zipped pouch. It also stayed nice and flat, unlike a couple small roll-up kits.
I liked that the labeling meant that I could tell someone to get my kit and it was easy to identify. I also liked that it had plenty of room for good tweezers, some repair/survival items and more.
Alas, they discontinued it, and mine got stolen.
So… Any thoughts on a similar cheap, red, flat pouch that opens wide, either empty or prepacked? Or have one to sell ior trade?
I’m a fan of the Condor. I have the full size for a general at home kit and the Lite in my car.
The Lite is my IFAK and is mounted to the back of the passenger headrest so it can be grabbed from anywhere in the car. I don’t use the strap to held it on, just the velcro and it’s never come off on me. It’s got enough space to hold all of my emergency gear without being too bulky in my tiny car.
The full size works nicely to toss in a bag if I’m going away for a week or so. It’s got enough room to cover pretty much all of the bases. I like it a lot.
I’m also a big fan of the red. Makes it super easy to find and it’s fairly obvious that it’s a medical bag, although I do have a cross patch on so there’s no doubts.
I stopped by my local surplus store and picked one of these up. It is about the perfect size for my first aid kit . I like the idea of the velcro and strap so I can pull it off to use. If you want a pocket for every thing this may not be the bag for you I put most stuff in groups in ziploc bags then they go into my kit
