Advanced First Aid Kit

This is the second such kit that I have assembled. The first was a give-away kit for the Wilderness Medical Society, here on campus. I have also given 3 presentations at the medical school on “What’s in a
First Aid Kit”. At the end of each presentation I meet with students over the course of about a week and help them put together a kit and we place a bulk order to a company so that we all get free shipping, and discounted prices.

I started on the outside pouch with a small pair of shears (mini shears from www.minishears.com). Shears are a must… you have to be able to cut clothes, cut gauze and even tape if you need it a specific way. Having dedicated medical scissors is the best way to keep them clean.

With the pod itself, I tried to put them pods in a specific order:

Small Pod:

2 Asprin tablets (325 mg ea) (placed here for quick access in case of chest pain)

Large pod:

(6) 4” x 4” gauze pads

10 band-aids

Medium Pod:

(1) 3” Mosquito Hemostats

2 Vionex hand cleaners

1 pocket sized CPR mask (from MDI)

2 Aspirin, 325 mg Tablet
6 Acetaminophen, 325 mg Tablet
8 Ibuprofen, 200 mg Tablet
4 Diphenhydramine, 25 mg Capsule
4 Diamode, 2 mg Tablet
4 Diotame Tablet
6 Alamag Tablet
6 Triple Antibiotic Ointment
4 Hydrocortisone Cream 1%

I’ll run through some of the equipment. I hope this isn’t below your level. I don’t
know what kind of medical training you have. Let me also say that when I give the “What’s in a First-Aid kit”
presentation each year I start by saying, “If you know exactly what you need just bring that. But since I don’t think any of us have a crystal ball we have to guess what we will need.” I also have a kit that goes with me on car trips that is about 4200 cubic inches. It has many of the things I carried on the ambulance with me. So to make a kit this size was a bit of challenge.

or CPR items, then you (or someone with you) are having a bad day, and you are just going to have to open the whole kit up (gloves, trauma items, pain meds, antibiotic cream, gauze pads, tape, etc.)

useful. Removal of fish hooks, thorns or even just a splinter is easier if you have a good hold of it. I might have added some tweezers or forceps,but then you start to get into a bigger kit.

or wrist. It can be tied in a loop to start a sling. There are a lot of uses and it seems to be
better than ACE wrap if you have to choose one or the other. Overall dimensions are 4” x 48”.

gauze and didn’t use much else (unless we had major trauma and needed something a lot bigger). They can be cut and folded to smaller size, doubled up for bigger wounds and taped in place. You often see in commercial kits that they will put 2” x 2” 3” x 3” and 4” x 4” gauze. They do this because the 4” x 4” gauze is the most expensive and it also looks, at first glace, like they have more items in the kit.

You may have noticed I did not include molskin. Personally, I don’t care much for it.
Most people use it wrong (you are supposed to cut a hole in the middle of the patch to go around the blister). I have never had good luck with it. I usually put a simple band-aid over the blister and tape it in place. I have also take shears and cut a strip of tape and then cut a small piece of tape the size of the blister and placed it sticky side to sticky side on the big piece of tape, essentially making a band-aid. This method is cheaper and seems to work better for me.

I’ll carry it with me, and if by chance have to use it I will post here.