Disaster Preparedness - First Aid Kit
It's Preparedness Monday around here, and I'm thinking about the First-Aid kit. I've been working on supplies for my 72-hour bag, and found something good in the peanut butter line. They don't have small jars in the Kroger, but they did have a set of 8 little snack containers in a box. It's a little more expensive than buying a jar, though not much, but it's a lot lighter than an 18 oz. jar, and I think weight is important. So, think of that as an alternative.
You don't have to have something this fancy looking, though it is easy to find. The one I bought at the Anderson County Preparedness Fair was lime green, could be mistaken for a lunch bag, and has no logo on it at all. It also doesn't have everything in it that I want, but it does have some bandaids, 3 water pouches, a survival blanket, a whistle, some hand sanitizer in a spritzer, and one of those crank flashlights.
Additional items to add to my kit:
*small pair of rounded scissors
*alcohol wipes
*antibiotic ointment
*finger splints
*tweezers
*ace bandage
*gauze pads
*ammonia ampules or smelling salts
*tin of aspirin
*tin of Tylenol
*disposable gloves
*non-adherent burn pads
*tube of burn cream
*eye drops
*thermometer
*snake-bite kit
*Epipen
*iodine wipes
*Vaseline
*adhesive tape
*N95 masks (not just dust masks)
*lighter (for sterilizing)
*needles and thread
*cotton swabs
*Imodium tablets
*Pepto-bismal tablets
*Calamine lotion
*triangular bandage
That's pretty complete, but if there are serious injuries in the neighborhood, say after a fire or tornado blows through, then I'd also want to have:
*pocket mask (for helping someone breathe)
*aspirator of some kind
*styptic pencil or powder to stop bleeding (Kwik-Stop Styptik Powder for pets is safe for humans to use, according to Boston Poison Control).
*goggles
*trauma shears for cutting clothing
*irrigation syringe
*penlight
*large flashlight or other source of light
*instant chemical cold packs
And a partridge in a pear tree a first aid manual! Doesn't help to have all those things if you don't know what to do with them in an emergency. I'd suggest learning about CPR, what to do in case of choking, burns, heart attack, bleeding, broken bones, etc. There is a downloadable .pdf of a First Aid book which you may find helpful. That particular one has 103 pages, though, so it's great to study it, but not good for a quick first aid kit. You might want to make up your own quick emergency cards, laminate them, and keep them in your kit.
I'll still want to have this one available or buy a good first aid book from Amazon, such as the AMA Handbook. I'd recommend Red Cross, normally, but comments indicate that it is not up-to-date on CPR and some other things. It's publication date is 1992! There's a 2011 possibility.
If you want to prepare for a disaster where first responders might not arrive for a couple of weeks, as in the case of a severe natural disaster, you might want to pick up a copy of Where There Is No Doctor. It's a good one to have if you are traveling outside of the US or Western Europe, too. One reviewer suggested leaving it with someone who might be able to use it when you return home. It's available in 80 languages, and is apparently widely used. I think I will pick up a copy, just in case. You can download the .pdf free at Hesperian, but it's 503 pages, so, again, I'd want the actual book in an emergency.
That's it for this week! Good luck in preparing your family and home. I hope you decide to do so. We never know when there will be a natural disaster, a job disaster, or some other thing that makes us wish we'd done something when we thought about it!
Next week: Do You Know Where These Are?
You don't have to have something this fancy looking, though it is easy to find. The one I bought at the Anderson County Preparedness Fair was lime green, could be mistaken for a lunch bag, and has no logo on it at all. It also doesn't have everything in it that I want, but it does have some bandaids, 3 water pouches, a survival blanket, a whistle, some hand sanitizer in a spritzer, and one of those crank flashlights.
Additional items to add to my kit:
*small pair of rounded scissors
*alcohol wipes
*antibiotic ointment
*finger splints
*tweezers
*ace bandage
*gauze pads
*ammonia ampules or smelling salts
*tin of aspirin
*tin of Tylenol
*disposable gloves
*non-adherent burn pads
*tube of burn cream
*eye drops
*thermometer
*snake-bite kit
*Epipen
*iodine wipes
*Vaseline
*adhesive tape
*N95 masks (not just dust masks)
*lighter (for sterilizing)
*needles and thread
*cotton swabs
*Imodium tablets
*Pepto-bismal tablets
*Calamine lotion
*triangular bandage
That's pretty complete, but if there are serious injuries in the neighborhood, say after a fire or tornado blows through, then I'd also want to have:
*pocket mask (for helping someone breathe)
*aspirator of some kind
*styptic pencil or powder to stop bleeding (Kwik-Stop Styptik Powder for pets is safe for humans to use, according to Boston Poison Control).
*goggles
*trauma shears for cutting clothing
*irrigation syringe
*penlight
*large flashlight or other source of light
*instant chemical cold packs
And a partridge in a pear tree a first aid manual! Doesn't help to have all those things if you don't know what to do with them in an emergency. I'd suggest learning about CPR, what to do in case of choking, burns, heart attack, bleeding, broken bones, etc. There is a downloadable .pdf of a First Aid book which you may find helpful. That particular one has 103 pages, though, so it's great to study it, but not good for a quick first aid kit. You might want to make up your own quick emergency cards, laminate them, and keep them in your kit.
I'll still want to have this one available or buy a good first aid book from Amazon, such as the AMA Handbook. I'd recommend Red Cross, normally, but comments indicate that it is not up-to-date on CPR and some other things. It's publication date is 1992! There's a 2011 possibility.
If you want to prepare for a disaster where first responders might not arrive for a couple of weeks, as in the case of a severe natural disaster, you might want to pick up a copy of Where There Is No Doctor. It's a good one to have if you are traveling outside of the US or Western Europe, too. One reviewer suggested leaving it with someone who might be able to use it when you return home. It's available in 80 languages, and is apparently widely used. I think I will pick up a copy, just in case. You can download the .pdf free at Hesperian, but it's 503 pages, so, again, I'd want the actual book in an emergency.
That's it for this week! Good luck in preparing your family and home. I hope you decide to do so. We never know when there will be a natural disaster, a job disaster, or some other thing that makes us wish we'd done something when we thought about it!
Next week: Do You Know Where These Are?