Guest Post: California First Aid Kit

Thanks to Comrade Jaguar over at Jaguar Press for this post detailing the California first aid kit he put together (it has avocado on it, hence the California) for use at street demos, at the range and in wilderness situations. He is a good friend of the blog and I hope that you check out his blog and enjoy his fine poetry.

Since attending a recent first aid training at the local Red Cross, I’ve become increasingly interested in first aid and preparedness in general. I wouldn’t call myself a “prepper,” but I do like to have a robust first aid kit on hand for what ever life throws my way.

Philosophy of Use (POU):
Versatility is the key idea guiding the composition of this kit. I found myself needing supplies for different applications: basic first aid, range medic, mini-disaster preparedness, street medic, west coast festival culture, etc. Any given day I could end up dealing with a small cut or burn, a gun shot wound, an earthquake, a riot, or a drug overdose. The items included are the result of careful personal consideration as well as conversations with friends and paramedical colleagues. It is designed for a group of 2-4 people as opposed to an individual IFAK-type configuration.

The kit is not a professional medical or long term care kit. Like most first responders, I assume that the person I am aiding will receive some sort of professional medical care within hours. I also assume that I will eventually have access to my back up supplies to restock after busting the kit out. I only packed what I reasonably know how to use, although an upcoming Wilderness First Responder class should allow me to enhance and utilize my kit more fully.

I store everything in a Condor Ripaway EMT Pouch, which has incredible storage capacity (check out a product description for more). I chose it primarily to be able to access items with one hand, which I learned the importance of after having to patch up a gashed finger. I chose Multicam pattern simply because it’s pretty. Small items are grouped and stored in ziploc bags, that way everything in the pack can take a dunk in a river and still remain sterile and dry. I also keep a list of items in the pouch and try to keep in mind which items are banned by TSA (medication, razor) so I can potentially remove them for travel.

Item List in 4 Categories:

Tools:

EMT sheers
LED light w/ lanyard and mini-carabiner
glow stick
red tape
small razor with sheath
tweezers
4 safety pins
waterproof notebook and pencil
up to 15 ft of 550 paracord (fob on velcro pull tab and LED lanyard)

Dressing:
SWAT Tourniquet
Israeli bandage

Quik Clot
adhesive bandage “booboo kit” with Neosporin and skin glue
2 unscented tampons
large gauze dressing
small gauze dressing
gauze pad kit with various sizes from 2×2” to 5×9”
medical tape roll (tied into pouch with gutted paracord)

Protection:
ear plugs
CPR faceshield
2 pairs of nitrile gloves
alcohol wipes/prep pads kit
2 field towels (Hoo-Ahhs)
2 face masks
space blanket
8 ziploc bags of various sizes

Medication module:
standard aspirin and non-aspirin pain/fever reducers
charcoal pills
sinus rinse

Looking forward to improving the kit, the obvious step is to train more with different tools for different situations. Besides that, I would like to incorporate more “natural” remedies (healing herbs, 5HTP) and add a Benchmade 915SBK to the mix because of its 4 way capability as a straight blade, serrated blade, seatbelt cutter, and window breaker.

Be prepared, train often. Here’s to hoping I never have to use any of it.

Fold out clamshell design makes kit easy to access with one hand and seal quickly with a velcro strap. You can see that there is a lot of organizing space in this pouch.