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Essentials for the first aid kit

9K views 77 replies 14 participants last post by  Cruisingdad 
#1 ·
What would people cal the essentials that they carry in their first aid kits. Whilst away we opened our kit to clean up a cut toe and found the kit we had brought decidedly lacking. What do people keep in theirs, this is basicaslly for just a couple of days cruising at a time at the moment but I would still like to hear from those who are more actively cruising.

Mick
 
#2 ·
Mick-
I made up a kit in a small tool box from Lowes, it includes:
tweezers, locking hemostats, scissors, small razor knife - not a utility knife, but small plastic handle with retractable blade.
cloth tape, 2" rolled gauze, assortment of gauze pads from 2" to 6",
assortment of adhesive strips (all cloth - hold when wet unlike plastic) including knuckle/fingertip pads. Burn dressing (pre-packaged gauze soaked with ointment), ibruprofen, acetominophin, peroxide and neosporin.
I've found this kit pretty much covers first aid needs and will hold things together until real help can be gotten if needed. My offshore kit is a bit more expansive.

Stephen
s/v Enfin
 
#3 ·
I don't know on a boat, but I'll give you my treking ideas because there is no doubt some overlap.

  • Jock itch cream - Yep, but not for it's intended purpose, it fixes just about any kind of a fungus and gunk you get on yourself while you are on a trek. Little patches of junk you get on your arm in the tropics, or anything that looks kind of blotchy or flakey on your skin, put this stuff on it, it often clears it up.
  • Aspirin
  • Caffeine - I never take this, but I do keep a few around just in case. I can imagine situations I could get into when exhausted that I would absolutely have to stay awake and alert for, and I might take a bit of caffeine then.
  • Antibiotic - Doctor prescribed, use as directed
  • Tooth ache pain reliever - Liquid, comes in a little bottle
  • Alcohol gel - Sold as hand cleanser, disinfects without needing water
  • Small mirror - I use my compass mirror, for getting junk out of your eye
  • Cotton swaps - For getting junk out of your ear
  • Table salt
  • Needle and thread - For bad cuts (I've never done this)
  • Duct tape - Bad cuts
  • Soap - Stop stuff before it starts! An ounce of prevention ...

I'm no doctor, but that's what I always carry treking, but on a boat you could carry a lot more of course. On a trek space is at a premium and you try to keep the weight down as much as possible, so you don't carry splints and piles of sterile cloth and things like that on a trek, you use sticks and ripped clothing, etc, and carry very limited amounts of sterile cloth, or sterilize it with alcohol used in a pepsi can stove as fuel, etc.

I too am interested in what people carry on their boats in terms of medicine and first aid kits and things.
 
#5 ·
I have never been very impressed with pre-made-up first aid kits and have always made my own based on my passed experience in emergency medicine. I buy a small (to mid) sized bag from a fishing store(I got mine at Bass Pro Shop) 12"x12"x6". Fishermen use them for holding rubber worms and associated gear. They open from the top and have "ziplock" type bags attached to three ring binder inside. The other top zipper opens a pocket on the other side that has a big compartment with little particians to hold your stuff. The bags are tuff and waterproof and pretty cheap. Inside the bag:

In the bigger pocket and outside pocket:
CPR pocket mask
tape scissors
tube hydrocortisone
sm. bottle Pharmadine
sm. Ace bandage
Sam Splint
several sm. applicators of medical adhesive
Steri-strips (like butterfly bandages for closing wounds)
rubber gloves
couple biohazard bags
1-2 rolls athletic tape
1-2 rolls elastisized athletic tape
Smaller pocket and ziplock side:
bacitracin ointment (similar to neosorine)
sting sticks
several small individual saline drops
lots of benzalkonium wipes (disinfectant, better than alcohl as doesn't burn or dry out the skin)
sm. bottle of benzalkonium
lots of band-aids of various sizes (make sure to include the very big ones)
lots (20+) 3x3 or 4x4 gauze pads
mole skin or band-aid brand blister blocker
more rubber gloves
10 or so 4x4 medical sponges
small (2x2) gauze pads
few cotton nose plugs
thermometer
hemestats
This is the kit I carry on the boat and have roughly duplicates that I carry in the car when I travel. I would deem this a pretty good kit for short trips. If I were going offshore or extended cruise, I would really beef this up. When in doubt error on the side of bigger, ie... gauze pads and tape will do the same thing as a band-aid and work on bigger injuries faster.

Hope it helps.
 
#6 ·
I have never seen a decent FAK sold commercialy so your question about putting one together is good, done to death on every outdoor activity forum but good non the less.
First thing you need is training. If you have some, get more. No use having an ambulance in a bag if you don't know what to do with it all.
Second, the time to find out you are missing something or to find out that something you realy need is not there is not when you need it but before hand. if you chose to buy a premade FAK, open it up and give it a look see so you know what is in there.
Good luck!
 
#7 · (Edited)
I would definitely recommend a very good and through medical reference. The ones that immediately come to mind are Where There Is No Doctor and Medicine for Mountaineering. I would strongly second the suggestion to get some training. The farther afield one ventures more comprehensive the training needs to be. For the voyager, I think, wilderness EMT training would not be excessive.

Sam
 
#8 ·
Mick,

I actually like the commercial first aid kits and own one. You can assemble them yourself without paying their prices, but you should get a list of what they have in them. They also have accomopanying books that tell you what to do and what to grab... but I have found them a bit vague for me. One of the things I really like about them is the way they section everything out based upon the injury and severity. If you have to stock a large kit, and don't section it out, it will look like the kids haloween bag after a very succefull Trick-or-Treat! You won't find anything quickly and you are never really sure what you have. A negative of the bag is its size and I think they understock the things you seem to use the most (like triple antibiotic cream, for example). But, they have a nice list of the script meds you need and most docs appreciate filling them knowing for sure where they are going and that you know how to use them (especially since there are controlled substances involved).

If you stock it with scripts, make sure you get the dry form as much as possible for antibiotics or any other med you can. You will usually see most pharmacist mixing these with water before they give them to you, but that starts the date-stamp, so to speak. They will stay longer in their original, sealed bottle and you can add the water when needed. I have also found many of the meds (like nitro) do not last very long in a humid environment. I had a doc on this forum reccomend injectable phen versus the suppositories which I would consider, but the idea of trying to punch a needle into me (or someone else) in a large sea is a little intimidating. I might still stick with the suppositories.

One good book is Advanced First Aid Afloat if you are going to sea with kids. The whole back half is dedicated to children. Another good one is A Comprehensive Guide to Marine Medicine. THis book is a good accompany to the kits but lacks the childrens section. It is nice and point-point and easy to undersatand and find things quickly.

Personally, I own both. I cannot have enough references. But I have kids with me, so it makes a difference.

Hope that helps. Take care.

- CD
 
#9 ·
CD-

I like and advocate Eastman's Advanced First Aid Afloat as well. Very comprehensive. Depending on what kind of sailing you're doing will often determine what you need in your medical kit. If you're just daysailing or doing weekend trips, then your kit doesn't generally need to be as comprehensive as a bluewater voyager/long-distance cruising kit does.

Adventure Medical has some excellent kits, like this one. If you want to assemble your own kit, you can take a look at the contents of this one and use that as a guideline. I like the fact that the bags are color-coded for different types of medical emergencies. The book by Eric Weiss is probably a pretty good book, as CD has anouther of his listed above, and probably is using the same brand kit in fact.
 
#14 ·
svs3 said:
I would definitely recommend a very good and through medical reference. The ones that immediately come to mind are Where There Is No Doctor and Medicine for Mountaineering. I would strongly second the suggestion to get some training. The farther afield one ventures more comprehensive the training needs to be. For the voyager, I think, wilderness EMT training would not be excessive.
This is really interesting to me. I'll definitely order those books. I have a few wilderness emergency medical books but I haven't given them the attention they deserve ... yet. You mention wilderness EMT, can you expand on that at all ? Is that a local kind of training you can get ?

T34C, you sound like you know a lot about this, what are your recommendations along the lines of training and education ?

Thank you.
 
#15 ·
Wilderness EMT is an add on to EMT Basic. Some extra back country care and evacuation. Not a bad idea. EMT B is 120-160 hours and covers the bases well but not to the invasive levels. That is No IVs thou some areas do allow Bs to start IVs, no pain control, no advanced airway and none of the "fancy stuff" that you most likely will never see a need for anyway.
http://www.aeriemed.com/wemtinfo.htm
 
#16 ·
PS, while Im thinking about it, dont forget to throw a bottle of baby asprin in the FAK. Many of us are into the cardiac age and 4 baby asprin may make the difference while you await air evacuation in the event of chest pain. it's great stuff.
Everyone is worried about getting hurt but an illness is a much more likely event.
 
#17 ·
Thanks for all the good info, I will grab a bigger, waterproof bag and fill it with more of the good stuff and less of the Crap. My boss is going to send me to a first aid course for work, bless his cotton sox.

I agree with wild card as well that we all worry about an accident when an illness is most likely. Thankfully the only illness we've had recently was a bit of a headache and bad stomach, must have got some of the cork in the bottle, surely red wine wouldnt make you hungover???? ;)
 
#18 ·
Hey Mick,

Sorry, missread the original post and thought you were talking offshore versus coastal. I would NOT buy the large 200 for that. They are big and take up a lot of room. I will say, though, that I am ultra conservative on the medical supplies (ie, more than I will ever need) but I run with kiddos and have to be.

Take care.

- CD
 
#19 ·
T34C said:
I buy a small (to mid) sized bag from a fishing store(I got mine at Bass Pro Shop) 12"x12"x6". Fishermen use them for holding rubber worms and associated gear. They open from the top and have "ziplock" type bags attached to three ring binder inside. The other top zipper opens a pocket on the other side that has a big compartment with little particians to hold your stuff. The bags are tuff and waterproof and pretty cheap. Inside the bag:

.
T can you show a picture of such bag. I like it, and since I will in the US soon, I'll buy one.

Will spend some time at the Westmarine in Puerto Rico, also...everything is much cheaper in the US, than in Europe with all the taxes we have, like 21% Sales tax in Portugal!!
 
#20 ·
My personal opinion on the training issue, you can't ever be over trained. That being said you really need to balance your investment in training with your realistic needs. If you are weekending with your family less than 20mi. from a port your needs are much different than if you were 200 mi. offshore where you will have to provide a lot of care for an extended period of time. You need to seriously look at your cruising grounds. If you had a serious injury or illness aboard how long would it take you to get into a port? When you get into a port how far away is the nearest hospital? Are their paramedic units that service the area? What is the Coast Guard response time likely to be? These are all questions that you need to consider when evaluating how much training is enough for you. I would guess for the average sailor cruising for a couple days at a time, I would recommend min. of basic first aid and cpr. Many areas offer a First Responder level of "first aid/cpr" type training that is designed to teach the basic skills to help treat and stabilize a patient until more qualified personel can arrive. While I agree with the others suggestions on EMT level training being a good idea, I'm not sure it is practical for the average "weekender". I would look into the First Responder training, and take into consideration the other issues mentioned above to determine your needs beyond that.
 
#21 · (Edited)
Mick,
Most EMT course are predicated on the assumption the more advanced life support is near by either in the form of a hospital or paramedics. The Wilderness EMT module is additional training on top of a regular EMT training. The traditional focus of the wilderness module is training for backcountry accidents and is geared usually toward the needs of backcountry guides, rafting guides, NOLS instructors, and the like. If you search you might be able to find one more in line with the specific needs of the lond distance voyager. The main advantage of the course is in teaching one how to improvise and think when help is a not just a few minutes away. I took a course years ago form these guys and would reccomend them: Wilderness Medical Institute . But would think if you go this route you should try to find an EMT course geared towards long distance voyaging and/or the issues regarding third world medical care which can range from excellent to nonexistant. Let me also recommend the following, as it has replaced the included (and excellent) guide that came with my Adventure Medical Kits Family II fak: Wilderness Medical Associates Field Guide (Spiral-bound) . As far as additions to a fak I would recommend the following: SAM splints, vet wrap, and large triangular banadages

I would second the idea that someone else posted that illness rather than acute trauma is a far more likely situation. Although both should be prepared for. Your doctor and/or a travel clinic given your your medical history and travel plans would be able offer more specific advice regarding potential illnesses.

A doctor should also be able help flesh out a fak with needed prescriptions for antibiotics and pain killers. This is especially important if your allergies to, say, penicillin, codine, or any of the popular antibiotics or pain killers or have a significant preexisting conditions such as a heart condition.

Sam

P.S. Another class, if you will, of books to consider, primarily as a supplemental reference, are those geared toward combat and special forces medics. Ditch Medicine and U.S. Army Special Forces Medical Handbook come immediately to mind but I have no experience them so cannot comment on thier quality or utility.
 
#22 ·
All,

Sorry to sound like I am about to go on a rant and rave, but this is a little pet-peave of mine and a common missconception among sailors.

First, let me throw in a point and observation: I have NEVER had to call the USCG for an emergency onboard. There you go, I set the stage. However, I think it should be stated on a sailboat you have to be INFINITELY more prepared and ready to hold your own for a longer period of time than if you were land based or on a motor vessel.

If you are moored off of Nassau, hell, jump in the dink. But for most of us, we are some hours (or many hours, at hull speed) to the nearest medical help. It is not as if you can run up to shore and you are at a hospital. You have no car there. You can call the USCG, but the time between the call and them actually ARRIVING can be considerable even if you are only a few miles away from their station (which is never the case, it seems).

Remember, you are on a sailboat. You can only go hull speed, even in an emergency. You cannot exactly call an ambulance service and tell them to meet you at this island near the beach since most of them would not have a clue what you are talking about (and many are unaccesible by motor vehicle). Air Evac (chopper, outside of USCG) has to have a place to land (you cannot land in mangroves). What I am trying to say is that everyone better be prepared for a long-haul to medical help. This is ESPECIALLY true if you sail with kids. I don't care if it is coastal... sailboats can be accident prone and you can go from fine to critical in one Jibe. Be prepared for trauma. That is another reason to make sure you can BOTH (Spouse, for example) single the boat in and out of the slip...not just sit behind the wheel and trim a sail as needed. And remember too, if there are only two of you, the boat cannot sail itself. One is hurt, the other is rendering aid, so who now is driving the boat? Calling the CGuard? Getting you closer to medical assistance? That's right, no one. Use your imagination for a moment and really think about all the steps that are required for you to get medical assistance. Just 20 miles offshore, you are WAYYYY out.

I said upfront that I am ultra conservative about this stuff, so please take the comments as such. I don't know that anyone sailing down a major US coastline will be waiting for 24 hours for an evac/medical assistance, but don't fool yourself into thinking you can dial 911 and you will have someone there within minutes... not to mention hour(s). Head trauma, cardiac, you have only minutes to stabilize. Cut a major artery. Minutes to stabilize. A band-aid and aspiring won't cut it.

If you approach even coastal cruising with the demeanor that "I am 24 hours from help and have to hold my own" you will stock accordingly and prep accordingly. You are not 24 hours, but get you mindset correct. Listen to Cruising Dad as he preaches the Boy Scout motto: BE PREPARED. Otherwise, you are no better than Ken Barnes (who everyone seems to feel showed very poor semanship).

Be responsible for yourself. It will save your life.

- CD
 
#23 ·
I'd have to agree with most of what CD said. It is very much the case, that even though, by high-speed powerboat or helo you are just minutes from help, it is very likely that help will not arrive in just minutes. A good example, though not of a sailboat, is the fishing boat that Giulietta mentions that was just 50 yards off the beach... yet people on the boat still died.

Just because you're in sight of help, doesn't necessarily mean that help can get to you. Being prepared as if you don't have timely access to help is the only way to go.

Head trauma, heatstroke, cardiac arrest, hypothermia, severe lacerations are all very possible injuries on a sailboat... head trauma during an accidental gybe, heatstroke from the sun, cardiac arrest and hypothermia from a man-overboard in cold waters, severe lacerations from falling or being hit by something. All of them have fairly good basic measures that you can take to try and help stabilize the person, but you have to have the knowledge and the equipment do so on board.

His point about what happens if it is just two of you.... or what if you're single-handing and get injured... Having a well-stocked medical kit... one that goes beyond basic first aid, is probably a good idea.
 
#24 ·
I both agree and disagree with CD and sailingdog. As I mentioned in last post, you HAVE to know your cruising grounds. I don't consider 20mi to be waaay out. At 6mph you are 3 hours and 20 minutes from help. (Roughly equivalent to an emergency room wait time. <g>)In my previous post I was careful to say 20mi from port. Yes in most cases you could call 911 and have aid waiting for you at the dock when you got there. No one has mentioned equiping the boat as an ambulance. Even the best of the fak discussed didn't mention having an AED. If someone goes into cardiac arrest, lets be honest, there isn't much you are going to do beyond CPR and your not going to use too much out of a big fak while doing it. You can do CPR if you have enough people on board, or you can call Coasties, or they are going to die. Heat stroke, the best aid there is the thing you have the most of, water, and getting them out of the hot environment. Things like severe lacerations you have to be prepared for and know how to treat. Most of what you are going to do while at sea doesn't take a ton of gear, but a few well used items while you go like hell for shore. The reality is unless there is trauma surgeon on your crew your ability to treat is more like treading water.
 
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