With all the recent discussion on CCW, I thought it would be prudent to discuss first aid kits and treatment of gun shot wounds or other dangerous injuries. Any shooting situation is an extreme danger to your personal safety and the safety of others around you. Whether you are at the range, your favorite hunting grounds, or even in your home, if you plan on being armed, in the event of an emergency, you must plan on keeping yourself, a loved one, or maybe a total stranger alive until help arrives. This is what being a responsible firearms owner and carrier is all about.
***Disclaimer***
I am NOT a doctor or a paramedic. I am NOT a professional. This is NOT a how-to guide. It is NOT to be misconstrued as advice or medical knowledge. This is what I carry and can do in an emergency that requires immediate medical attention, i.e., a gun shot wound, deep puncture wound, broken bone(s), treating shock.
Any personal experiences that you folks have and/or training, please add it to this thread. The purpose of this thread is to be informative and to encourage others to seek training and to anticipate the much more realistic event of being wounded.
***Disclaimer***
For carrying my Gun Shot Wound kit (reffered to as GSW kit from here on) I chose a standard USGI first aid box. It measures approximately 5 1/2" x 4 1/2" x 2". I find it useful because it is rugged, it can be slipped into a cargo pocket or a small pocket on a range bag, it can be worn on my pistol belt when I'm hunting, it was inexpensive, and carries everything I need.
Inside my GSW kit I have added some important items that are often overlooked in a first aid kit. The first is a chem-light and the second is a mylar blanket.
The chem-light is useful because shit happens in the dark. It can be substituted by a flashlight or other quick and efficient light source, though I recommend keeping your light source in the kit itself. I like the chem-light because of its ease of use and it stores well. Chem-lights have an expiration date and should be rotated out yearly or every two years. I added black tape to mine to focus the illumination and I cut the plastic hook off to make it more compact.
The mylar space blanket is a must have for the treatment of shock. Anytime a person is injured their body can go into shock and complicate things for you and them. A good way to treat shock is to lay the person down and keep them covered. A mylar space blanket weighs next to nothing and can serve as an expedient covering. The space blanket has a ton of uses, though I wont discuss those here as they aren't related to first aid.
The next few pieces of gear I carry with me are bandages. I keep a 4" x 4" gauze pad, a 3" x 3" gauze pad, a 5" x 9" abdominal pad, a 3" roll of kerlix gauze, and a 6" Israeli dressing.
These pieces serve as various blood stoppers for different types of wounds that could be encountered. I won't go into specifics on how to employ these pieces as that is something a professional should teach. I can say that gauze is a very effective way of containing blood-loss from open wounds, or covering wounds like burns and punctures.
These last few pieces round out my GSW kit. They are an ACE elastic wrap, two pair gloves, a few anti-septic, alcohol, and iodine wipes, and about ten feet of duct tape wrapped around a business card.
Obviously the gloves are for treating other people, or other people treating you, with the second pair being for another person that is helping. The wipes are useful for disinfecting, and the ACE wrap and duct tape can be used for wrapping wounds, securing splints, a make shift tourniquet (which I will cover soon), a make shift sling, or many other uses.
A few things I don't carry purposefully are a tourniquet, a decompression needle, and nasopharyngeal airway. I know a lot of people will recommend these things, but I will admit that I do not have the training to employ such things confidently, and so cannot recommend them. I also think that these techniques are best left to professional medical personnel. I will not discourage anyone from carrying those items or others.
Question: Now, lets say you want to slap together an expedient GSW kit until you can buy some of the aforementioned items, what would I recommend?
Well, for bandages and gauze, clean white cotton t-shirt strips will work in a pinch. I know everyone has at least one white Fruit-of-the-Loom t-shirt that doesn't fit laying at the bottom of the sock drawer. Also, a couple maxi-pads, even a small child's diaper can work in a pinch, wrapped around a wound and tied off with a bandanna or a clean white gym sock cut length wise down the seem to double its length. Wrap some duct tape around a business card or old credit card for taping and securing bandages, etc. Place these items in a zip-lock bag.
Question: Well, I have some bandages, but they appear to be old and not sterile, can I use them?
Yes, of course, use them for training. Practice with someone. Practice on yourself. Take a red marker and draw a circle on your foot, or a nice big line on your arm, or a hole on your chest (yikes!). Now, reach into your pack or pocket, whip out your GSW kit and go to work. Use your old expired bandages to teach yourself.
I hope this article has been useful and I hope it encourages others to seek some basic first aid training, and to carry some lifesaving gear along with the life-defending gear. In all actuality, the gear we carry, whether to the range or anywhere else, is all life-defending. Thanks for reading.
P.S. Mods, if this belongs in a different section, please move this. It was a toss up between the survival and preparedness section and this one. Or maybe a dedicated first aid section is necessary, I leave this up to you....
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