When it comes to medical supplies and first aid, the basics are fairly simple. As you start thinking about the more serious injuries, you need to think about the trauma kits and skills to treat those injuries. This week we take an in depth look at trauma kits with Kevin Reiter of the Wilderness Safety Institute.

Not only are the supplies themselves important, but knowing how to use them, and knowing when (and when not) to use them is more important. Some of these supplies for traumatic injuries have irreversible affects and require medical attention soon afterword’s.

SPP230 An In-Depth Look at Trauma Kits with Kevin Reiter (Part 1)

This week I talked with Kevin about what supplies you might want in your trauma kit and how each of these medical supplies works. We also talked about the types of situations we might find ourselves in, and how to treat a few common injuries.

Sometimes There Just Isn’t an Answer

When we think about trauma kits, and prepping in general, we sometimes think about a full blown SHTF event…I know I do. The truth is, the odds are far greater that the SHTF event is personal or local, and not a complete societal breakdown.

Car accidents, natural disasters, civil unrest (riots) and terrorist attacks are far more likely than a sudden economic collapse that brings society to it’s knees. The one caveat to this is North Korea and their increasing ability to hit the U.S. with an ICBM, and the possibility of losing all or part of the power grid.

In a situation like this, where there might not be medical help available, and items like quick clot can’t (or shouldn’t) be used. Some of these items and injuries require immediate medical attention, and in a complete SHTF scenario, that may not be an option.

As preppers we try to find an answer for everything, but sometimes the only answer is trying to avoid the situation in the first place. By planning ahead and staying focused, we may be able to avoid some of these injuries all together.

Distracting Injuries (Patient Assessment)

If something happens to you personally, you probably know what’s wrong. If you are helping someone else who is injured, you might not know the full extent of their injuries. This is when the MOI (mechanism of injury) comes into play. The MOI could be something simple like falling off a ladder, or something more complex like injuries from a car accident.

In a car accident, injuries can be caused by many things depending on how the accident occurred. There could be head injuries caused by an airbag or windshield, shoulder injuries cause by the seatbelt, or leg injuries from the car damage.

This is why it’s important to do a complete patient assessment, and not just focus on the obvious injuries. In the show, we talked about how some minor injuries are more painful than some more serious injuries, and how the stress of the situation, and the patient themselves can distract you.

Important Trauma Kit Supplies

In this week’s show we covered some of the basic supplies you might want in your trauma a kit and how important it is that you know how and when to use these supplies if you are going to have them. In the show we went into quite a bit of detail about each of these, so make sure and listen when you get a chance.

I’ll leave the full list here, but in part 1 we only got to pressure dressings and Quick Clot. In part 2 (coming out next week) we went over the ...