What's in your IFAK?

Personal Trauma Kit

Contents must be personalized, based on your level of training, AO and mission.

You MUST know how to use each item in the kit, both on yourself as well as someone else. This is for more than gunshot wounds. It should handle burns, blast injuries, penetration injuries, tension pneumothorax, etc. Think terrorism.

If you would have a kit like this, get the proper training to use all the medical gear in it. It doesn't matter what letters rest behind your name or what you call yourself, because it won't mean that you know what you are doing or if you should even be allowed to touch people! Reading is no substitute for training, but this book is a good reference and task refresher:
http://www.brooksidepress.org/Produc...MedicalBag.htm

Even the military does not have a standard kit, each service has different contents and even then, they are not standardized, but mission specific with some components being left out due to training issues. I won’t carry this kit every day, but doing anything with accident potential, shooting, hunting, backpacking, wood cutting, etc., where EMS response is more than a few minutes away, it is there.

Current kit weighs about a pound and fits into a 5” X 5” X 2” zippered nylon pouch.

1 ZIPPERED NYLON POUCH
1 CRAVATTE (Triangular bandage)
1 SOF-T, CAT or TK4 (Tourniquet)
1 KERLIX
1 QUIK CLOT 3.5 OUNCES SINGLE DOSE PACKET
1 EMT SHEARS
1 ASHERMAN CHEST SEAL
2 PAIRS OF NITRILE GLOVES
1 BLOOD STOPPER BANDAGE
1 PETROLATUM GAUZE DRESSING 3X9 INCHES
1 ACE ELASTIC BANDAGE 3 INCH
2 PACKETS OF SURGI-LUBE
1 NPA NASAL AIRWAY 28F
10 4X4 INCH GAUZE PADS
2 4X4 WATER-JEL BURN DRESSINGS
2 SANI-DEX HAND WIPES
1 ROLL OF 1 INCH CLEAR MEDICAL TAPE
1 14 GAUGE OVER THE NEEDLE CATHETER FOR CHEST DECOMPRESSION
1 C.A.T. TOURNIQUET
2 PRIMED COMPRESSION GAUZE CINCH TIGHT
1 INSTRUCTION SHEET
MEDPACK:
Meloxicam (Mobic) 15 milligrams (mg) x 1.
Acetaminophen (Tylenol) 500 mg x 2.
Gatifloxicin 400 mg x 1.

People don’t realize that when you take the average EMT and the usually accepted protocols and apply them to a true "wilderness" situation, they don't work because they are predicated on "rapid" transport time, in a resource rich environment, to an appropriate higher level of care.

Case in point about ten years ago a fellow on a logging crew, got cut by his chainsaw. EMS got called. Medivac helicopter got called. Carried the guy out to LS in a stokes. Guy bled to death. “Blow out kit” and a buddy who had taken Army combat lifesaver training most likely would have saved him.

Another SAR live body recovery in WV, guy took a fall. Would have been a long, very technical carry out. “Wild medic” (Army trained), cleared his spine, diagnosed a fractured clavicle/ shoulder dislocation. Gave him Toradol IM, reduced his dislocation, butterfly/sling and swath, and the guy walked out on his own/assisted in his own rescue, decreasing evac time/risk. What would have been measured in over a day, got him home in time for dinner. Later complete recovery.

Bottom line:

TCCC hasn't trickled down to the street level. The concept of treating someone effectively out of a small Harper SAR Pack which contains the minimum required gear, for multiple 12-hour operational periods up to several days in a field environment, is completely foreign to them. Only military medics are trained that way.

I know there are currently serving military medics on this forum. I would welcome their comment and critique on the above and corrections of any errors of fact, because I have been retired since 2011, no longer work SAR or ski patrol and my training certs are expired. Up to date information is welcome.

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What's in your IFAK?