Today, what I thought we'd do is go over vehicle first aid kits and some of the common injuries. Down below there's a link to a recent article going over types of injuries from roadside accidents and the most common causes of death, the more common causes of death. There's not a lot to do if you're a bystander pulling up on scene of a traffic accident.
Read "Causes of fatalities in motor vehicle occupants: an overview"
Things like massive traumatic brain injury, noncompressible hemorrhage, Blunt trauma to the chest and abdomen.
Standard Vehicle First Aid Kits
This is the standard stock Hyundai vehicle first aid kit. So we've got stuff like bandaids, little scissors, gloves, and tweezers. Traffic light, which is just a glow stick. Antiseptic wipes, butterfly strips. This one's pretty funny. This is Blood Stop. A one inch by one inch dressing. That's really not going to do anything to save a life, but if you cut yourself shaving in a car, it may come in handy. We got a CPR Face Shield. Might come in handy. Ace bandage. A couple things of gauze and some tape. Probably the most useful thing in here, this is a triangular bandage, however, it's one of the cheap ones, so it's going to tear apart if you try to make an improvised tourniquet.
Adding Life Saving Gear
What I want to do to improve this kit is I want to add some life saving things, like a tourniquet. I always like to have two tourniquets. Remember to always remove the wrap so you don't have to do that in an emergency. I'm also going to put some sort of a hemostatic dressing. I'm going to get some compressed gauze, so when I pack that wound, I can back it up with more gauze. And then I like to carry these little Mini responder. It's a four inch emergency trauma dressing. So now once I dress that wound, I can put some compression on it as well, but I like to carry a knife that's actually got a glass breaker as well, and then this also has a rescue hook, so we can cut a seatbelt off, cut clothing off.
Door Panel Kit
If you just want to get one that's already ready to go, the thing that I carry is this NAR Vehicle first aid kit. So this is a door panel kit, and you can see it's kind of similar size to the Hyundai one, but quite a bit more useful. Inside this, we've got the QuikClot. I've got my C-A-T® staged and ready to go. I've got a couple gloves, a vented chest seal, and then we also have an emergency trauma dressing, a four inch one. Since I'm a provider, I would also put a needle for needle decompression in there. And now this is more of the convenience package side. So in here what we've got is a Sharpie for marking our casualties. We've got a face shield. Duct tape. I've got assorted bandages, and then also a burn dressing, not uncommon in vehicles. And then we've got a little convenience kit. Some sheers. So as you can see, it's quite a bit more capable. Takes up about the same space, but more prepared for a multitude of injuries.
Make sure whatever you have in your vehicle, you know it well, and then you augment that for truly lifesaver measures. Thanks. Hope it helps.
