School Me on Field Dressings

[Legman688]

So I am in the midst of slowly putting together my EDC bag, including my EDC first aid kit, and in the process I am also slowly putting together the contents of my large first aid kit. All of my first aid training was 10-14 years ago (Boy Sprouts) which means everything I know beyond the "Stop the bleeding, make sure they're breathing" level is obsolete. My first aid kits are, as a consequence, built around dealing with two things: day-to-day cuts, scrapes, etc. and then dealing with more serious injuries like large-scale hemorrhaging (okay, on this forum I can be frank - gunshot or stab wounds primarily) over the very short term until I can get to medical professionals or they can get to me.

As part of that, I want to get a few field dressings of the new self-applicable kind. Plan is to put a 4" in the EDC kit and a 4" and 6" or two 6" in my larger FAK. But I do not know the difference between Olaes, Israeli and H-type bandages. Which is easiest to self-apply? Which do you prefer? Why? Are there any other substantial differences between them I should know about? Or would I be better off getting gauze/tampons/other and a triangle bandage? The EDC FAK is supposed to fit in a sandwich baggie, in theory.

Also, where do people get their first aid supplies that can't be obtained at Walgreens/CVS/etc.? I found Chinook Medical online, which seems reputable and has competitive prices.

[randy]

Also, where do people get their first aid supplies that can't be obtained at Walgreens/CVS/etc.?

Make friends with a bunch of EMTs (Seriously, you can get some practical advice of what, and what not to carry).

Galls has a lot of EMT/Paramedic level supplies available.

I don't have enough direct knowledge to answer the actual poll question.

I did throw a pack of Kotex into the both the vehicle and the range FAKs. Not only for any possible GSW's but from my Boy Scout OA days, I know a branch, some wire, some Kotex and some kerosene/gasoline, you can make a pretty fair torch for light or signaling if need be.

If you haven't done so for a while (or never read them), review Aesop's Lessons in the wiki for ideas and discussion on what, and what not to, stock.

[Aegis]

I've got a bunch of HemCon bandages if you want some. They do contain shrimp chitin, so if you have shellfish allergies they're a definite no-go.

Also, I promise I won't charge you 150 bucks each

[Kommander]

Your going to need to some research into modern methods of treating trauma. Tourniquets, compressed gauze, hemostatic agents, and compression bandages are now the order of the day. This is quite the departure from what I learned just 10 years ago in scouts. Just for example tourniquets, once considered to be a last ditch device, are now widely used and sometimes the first thing to be put on if the wound is bad enough. A basic military type GSW (Gun Shot Wound) Kit, such as the IFAK, will have a tourniquet of some kind, a compression bandage such as an Izzy, and compressed gauze. Popular additions to this are tape, chest seals, and some kind of hemostatic agent such as QuikClot.

I have purchased some medical supplies from Rescue Essentials. They have a variety of premade kits that are reasonably priced. I purchased a IFAK off of The bandages and gauze are pretty cheap so I recommend you open some up to play with so you know what your going to be dealing with if you ever have to use them.

[Combat Controller]

I'll give Doc Russia a heads up about this topic, he has a lot to say and he even built me a primo FAK.

[Rumpshot]

The Appleseed Forum had quite a comprehensive GSW kit at one time. Don't know if it is still there or not.

Try appleseedinfo.org and go to the forum.

[AlaskaTRX]

I was all excited thinking that this thread was going to be about gutting and dressing game in the field...

[Combat Controller]

And I thought it was about what to wear to the hottest social events in a field.

[workinwifdakids]

It would be hard to go wrong with any standard field/trauma dressing - I chose the Israeli because they had plenty at a good price at a gun show. Whatever style you buy, purchase an extra so you can pop it open and play with it. If you're like me, muscle memory will kick in and you don't want to learn while someone's spurting, screaming, and struggling.

You have to be comfortable using your gear.
DELETED - I don't want flatly wrong information out there, but I admit my error and have been corrected. Thank you, Kommander, and Anonymous - you know who you are.

I keep my gear in two pouches: a blow-out kit, and a boo-boo kit. I don't want to be sorting through Hello Kitty band-aids and cough drops if someone's insides are outside. In my blow-out kit I have two Israeli bandages, two high-intensity chemlights, medical tape, duct tape, four pairs of hospital-grade exam gloves, a hemostatic agent, two large black permanent markers, several 3x5 cards, and a chest seal. That's it.

Oh, and don't put yourself down for your BSA first aid training. My WAG is that the overwhelming majority of first aid responses are by people who's last first aid training was BSA, and they do just fine. Sure, things have changed, but "elevate above the heart and apply pressure" isn't going anywhere, even if they do have blood-sucking pixie dust now.

[Kommander]

You have to be comfortable using your gear. I don't, for example, carry a tourniquet. My opinion? They've become popular because everybody wants what the deployed guys have, and the IFAKs come with one. They're perfect if you see someone who has a limb, and he suddenly cannot find it. If you put it on anything else, that person will be going home MINUS whatever's downstream from where you put it. Put a $5 bill in your IFAK instead - if you ever need a tourniquet, make one. It'll take 10 seconds, and then you can buy a lottery ticket on your way home.

I am sorry but this is simply not true. The militaries recent experience in the current wars has shown that a tourniquet can be placed on a limb for up to two hours with no permanent damage. In fact depending on the severity of the wound it may be the first thing you want to put on. Surgeons have been using them for years top isolate blood flow but until relatively recently no one seemed to noticed and kept repeating the old "anything you put a tourniquet on your going to loose" mantra. Also field improvised tourniquets are simply not as effective as modern purpose built ones. Buy one of the good ones (SWAT-T, CAT, SOFT-T) and learn how to use it.

I dug up this article and this article and am going to try to find some more stuff too, but there is allot of outdated information to sift through. The article does suggest a 30min time limit rather than two hours in order to have a wide enough safety margin, but in the vast majority of circumstances that should be plenty of time to get a person to a hospital.