What sould be in the First Aid Kit

[dougk]

What are the key items in the survival first aid kit?

thanks
Doug

[Rex in OTZ]

think on what would be some your worst case sinerio injuries
Burns, eye injury,broken bones (ribs in a ATV rollover),teeth, back&neck(spinal), gapeing wounds in excess of 1/8" deep and over 1" long the need to stop blood loss,Blunt force trauma to head and body(fall)
a good aniceptic is a first, also some good guaze and non-stick padding, sport wrap(great stuff)betadine solution, saline solution, tweezers, superglue, a roll of paper towl's Ive used them before to stop bleeding from a cut to the bone on my shoulder after being struck by a airplane propeller while doing maintenance (cylinder differential compression test that got away from me)...it was a blunted edge but went through a flannel shirt and heavy Carhart t-shirt , pain killer (dont over dose) I intenonally left that vague as some folks are allurgic to Asprin or Tylanol. packet's of quick clott (some folks swear to sugar) 2 each Samms splint's (soft aluminum sheeting coverd in foam rubber), 3 in one bandages (big triangular ones) (dont use duct tape as it kills skin) duct tape on warts is another matter though.
stabilize and get to a health care facility asap!
15 years ago I was involved in a gasoline fire and my flannel shirt went up like a wick, the polyester lining burnt the hell outta my hands/arms/neck and torso, I remember splashing water on my burns and wetting a hand towel aw it seemed that as long as I kept the burned stuff coverd i dident hurt so bad and then getting a ATV ride down to the clinic for some burn cream or something, when they saw me they they went ape sh*t and next thing I was being medivacked to Anchorage had a cathider stuck in my johnson and morphene drip ended up with burns on 27% my body 70% of that was 3rd degree and required skin grafts off my legs. today Im ok, I have use of my hands and arms and since most the damage is coverd by a long sleive shirt most folks dont know I was evin burned, I'm allot more cautious than when I was 28yro, thinking back on it, them day's I was 10 feet tall and bullet proof. I spent 30 days in a burn clinic.

I live off the road system (in excess of 240miles.....Arctic North West Alaska) its best to be on ones toes and head off injuries before they happen.

Thinking back on that mountain climber that had to cut off his forarm with a cheepie folding belt tool calls to mind in my youth seeing neighbors and family missing didgets and nasty scars arms and hands that had been broken and heal'd at wierd angles
Uncle  a In-law had lost the outter 3 fingers of the rh hand just his thumb and index in a combine (custom cutter)
my Mom's parents both had missing didgets, Grendpa kenny's favorite thing to do to us little grand kids was poke us with his stub of rh index finger it was scarey at 2-3 yro, My grandmother was missing a chunk her left of index also,
I remember a fella (Adolf Vakoc)over in Knox county that got his hand caught in a old tractor mounted corn picker (lots of sprockets and big gage roller chain) had gotten his right hand stuck in a sprocket and had to use his left hand to fish out his pocket knife so he could cut off his stuck fingers (too mangled to save in the 1950's) he was a batchler so nobody would have been looking for him on his remote farm field he woulda died of shock and exposure if he hadent.
More recinently ther was the fella across the Niobrara River just south of Butte Nebr who had a indian woman for a wife used to have really long black hair, they were running farm equipment runnoff the tractor PTO (cannot remember if it was a grinder mixer of bailer) her loose hair blew up next to the PTO shaft and took hold and tore her scalp right off her head (head wounds bleed like crazey)
My dad and his buddies were out ATVing not long ago and one them was unfortunet to have had a rollover (honda Rancher) busted 13 of his ribbs, lost his spleen, lots of irreversable internal injuries and is still hospitilized as I relate this
you can only carry so much and the rest you need a buddy to cart you to the hospital.

[Rex in OTZ]

My co-worker related he now carries a terrycloth towel where ever he travels especialy in the wintermonths here in NW Arctic, he related how he had almost lost his Rt thumb 2.5 years back it was late febuary and cold -32F he was hunting by himself (his brother couldent go at last minuet) for wolf or caribou, he'd been trailing a group of wolves up into the Buckland hills, after several attempts, he'd managed to get around them, to set up for a shot and thats when his grandfathers Remington .243 blew up in his face spitting the bolt out the receiver almost severing his RH thumb, hitting him in the face&mouth he had only some band aids in his kit for minor cuts so He wrapped his hand tightly with a terrycloth towel he had for drying his face & neck from blowing snow and stuffed that in one his mittens, he managed to un-do the clevis attaching his short sled (home made wood board sled just big enough to carry a couple caribou and a gerry can or two)  managed to pull start his snowmobile left handed and headed back towards home over 28 very rough miles away, left handed on a rh hand throttle snowmobile, as he went he noticed the weather was changeing the temprature was riseing up in the -teens,the winds picking with windchills running in the area -65f to -115F, along the way he'd passed got so dizzey he'd stopped till it passed thinking he had little time left to get home as his hand and head were bleeding badly, lucky the cold crusted up his blood saturated Parka so evein wet it wasent allowing the wind through, and his Beaver hat & parka with wolf ruff & windshield did much to protect his face
thing's were getting bad as he grew weaker and become stuck in some creek draws(damn willows) trying to shave a few miles by takeing short cuts and getting stuck useing up his strength getting the snowmobile unstuck,  3 miles outta town he then ran out of gasoline (he'd left his spare gas on the flat sled) so he started floundering the little way's to get on a wood cutter trail to for a easer treck back to town, he finally fell down & couldent get up sitting on that snowmobile track thorugh the marshes next thing he sees a snowmobile coming his way and he's rescued by a searcher, turns out a couple of overdue travelers dident show up up trail the searcher he was checking in out the way place thinking the out of towners may have taken a wrong turn up trail in the ground blizzard and came across my co-worker done in from shock, bloodloss, head injury and hypothermia, he was helped on the sled too weak to ride up on the sno-go and had a swift ride back to town, the Alaska Native Medical Center, did reconstructive sugery to the right side his face & upper jaw (lost all his teeth on the upper right side) they'd said 1/2" higher he'd lost his eye, the Doctors wanted to amputate his thump, he said as it was still attached a little if they could to save his thumb, he use's it quite subsistance hunting, they managed to save that thumb that ole boy has  some nasty scars & stich marks& gunpowder tattoos in his skin from that old gun.
The doctor said if he hadent wrapped his hand they would had to undoubtedly amputate more than a thumb