Why do I carry a trauma kit with me?

You never know when trauma's going to strike. And trauma is the leading cause of death in the US in the pre-hospital setting. So you always want to be prepared because you don't know when or where it's going to happen. It could happen at the workplace, happen on the highway, it could happen on outdoor adventures. So trauma kits aren't just for high-end first responders and paramedics, really, they're for anybody, so that you can save a life.

So in an ideal world, I'd have an ambulance and a police officer following me around at all times, and I wouldn't need to worry about it. But that's just not the case. You don't know what the response time's going to be till someone's able to come on scene. Help you out at the site of that accident. So you want to make sure that you're carrying lifesaving equipment with you at all times.

So the important thing is that you modify that kit based on your training, based on your location, and based on your risk. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to vary that kit depending on my activities. I'm going to put it in a kit that I know I can have with me at all times. So that may be in a backpack, that may be in a car.

I'm going to modify that based on the activity. And also based on that risk level, that's going to be taken into account, how far I think EMS response time is going to be from me. If I'm way out in the back country, I may be taking a little bit more, so I'm a little bit more prepped. Whereas if I'm in a vehicle, I may have a more kind of instant trauma kit that I'm able to just keep in that vehicle.

But remember that a trauma kit does you no good if it's just sitting at home, locked away in a closet. You've got to have a kit that you can take with you and have available at all times.