At some point in your journey into preparedness, you wind up starting to stock up on medical supplies. Not just first aid stuff, although that gets piled high too, but ‘medical supplies’…things like gloves, sutures, forceps, drapes, irrigation tools, scalpels, etc, etc….things that really go beyond izzy bandages and SAM splints. When it comes up in discussion there is invariably some wag who opines that storing medical stuff that you have no idea how to use is foolish and even dangerous, since it may encourage you to use it when you have no idea how to use it correctly.
I heartily disagree. First of all, I’m a fairly intelligent guy…if I don’t know how to use something, I can always learn. (And you should always be learning…) But here is the main reason I think that storing medical supplies that you don’t know how to use isn’t a bad thing: just because you don’t know how to use it doesn’t mean there won’t be someone else around who does.
How often do we read about car accidents where one of the first people on the scene was an EMT, nurse, or doctor, on their way to work that morning? If you’re in a crisis situation and you don’t know how to help somebody, there’s a good chance that there is someone with the talent, but not the tools, nearby. Provide them the tools.
Another good reason is evidenced in Venezuela right now. In many parts of the world, hospital care is dependent on the patient providing their own supplies. Oh, you may luck out and find a hospital that isn’t re-using syringes, isn’t using medicine that was stored improperly, isn’t using medicines of questionable origin and purity, but to be perfectly safe…you bring your own. Check this out:
(Here’s another article on Venezuela’s medical crisis.)
In this country, it’s not that difficult to stock up on that sort of thing. In fact, you can get an amazing amount of first aid and medical supplies (and equipment) off eBay if you know what you’re looking for. I think I bought a case of 4800 bandaids for something like twenty bucks. But, there’s also sutures, scalpels, lights, drapes, forceps, retractors, braces, crutches, portable x-ray machines, etc, etc. You can create a very passable medical clinic/station using nothing but your laptop, a debit card, and UPS.
When ‘The Big One’, or whatever your particular flavor of apocalypse is, occurs it will stretch your local hospitals stores to the limit. The .gov, occasionally showing some good decision-making skills, has the Strategic National Stockpile. (More here.) The notion here is that when Mayberry Hospital gets virtually stripped to the walls as patients flood in and are laid out in makeshift wards in the parking lot, the feds can swoop in with whatever passes for a Packaged Disaster Hospital these days. (The PDH’s are still out there, in some cases…like lost Cold War time capsules. This one was discovered in the base of the Brooklyn Bridge a few years back.)
My point is that it is not unreasonable to stock medical supplies that may be beyond your ability to use. However, just because you don’t know how to use something now is no excuse not to perhaps learn how to use it for a later time. When things go sideways it’s a safe bet your local medical facilities will be crowded, understaffed, overworked, overwhelmed, and probably underequipped. You’re future is a lot brighter when your neighbor, the retired doctor or nurse, says “Yeah, I can fix that but we need some…” and you trot to your supply locker and produce it.
Recommended reading:
Even if you’re not doing DIY surgery, books like these give you excellent ‘shopping lists’ for things to keep on hand.
Fishing buddy hooked himself but good (badly?). Retired nurse co-fisher whipped out her kit and cut him open using the sharp edge of a big-bore IV needle while off-handedly commenting how often they had to resort to the technique “cuz you can never find a scalpel when you need one”. Moral of the story: never get in a knife fight with an ER nurse- they improvise.
I believe Greece went BYOB for many supplies a few years back too.
As someone who has worked with the SNS program, I would be hesitant to rely on it too much…
If you go overseas to some third world country, the Medical evacuation companies offer some basic surgical packs with syringes, needles, IV supplies etc that you can purchase and carry with you in your luggage. Some places are notorious for re-using one-time supplies (contaminated with body fluids).
Do you have links?
Same philosophy here. 1) Supply a Doc with the equipment they might need but lack, 2) consult with a Doc remotely by any means possible, give them the info they need to make a diagnosis and let them tell me what to do, or 3) try to help and not harm.
The very basics for starting an IV as an example from the article. Sterile/disposable start kits, admin sets, and catheters are available from online veterinary sources w/o a prescription. Sources for IV fluids at reasonable prices can be harder to find (stay away from wilderness/survival medical sites) but my last order came from healthproductsexpress and looks like they still have them in stock. Last time I restocked it came out to about $13 for everything needed to administer 1L of 0.9% saline, a lot cheaper than a day of practice at the range and potentially just as lifesaving of a skill to have in an emergency. Plus, once your medicine chest includes the necessities for getting IV access then a lot of other treatments and therapies become possible.
Packaged Disaster Hospital? Yea, they have them, I’ve seen it and it is impressive. A hospital in the area of where I work EMS is having it’s ER totally gutted and modernized, so what do you do with no ER area? You contract out a hospital. The set up is impressive to say the least.
http://tinyurl.com/carolinas-med1
I comes on two semi trucks and a few more support vehicles. In the picture below the main ops trailer is on the right.
http://tinyurl.com/med1-photo
The way the nurses and doc described it to me was that all they need is flat space, fuel for the generators and occasional medical resupply. They have been refining the setup since right after Katrina. The inside might seem cramped to some but considering what we can do in the small area of an ambulance a semi trailer is a world of room.
On the OP of having supplies, I handily agree. I might not have my trauma bag in/on the vehicle I’m currently driving and your first aid kit will help greatly.
On the subject of reference books and knowledge, if you want to go a little (ok a lot) deeper than your basic first aid and trauma, find a free EMT course in your area or pony up the cash for it. Or just read and absorb the books.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1284032841/ref=rdr_ext_tmb
Just remember you can’t go out and save the public if you read this stuff, thats why we have registration (NREMT) and state licensing. BUT you will be better off with the knowledge than without.
YMMV
if you need an older edition of the pre-hospital care and transpo book. i have one. no charge, to help like minded person. i have the newer edition since i went thru EMT-B. local to you.
I have some as well let me know
Nothing beats joining a local squad and going on calls tho. That’s why I became a volunteer EMT and now I’m a Medic running an ambulance lol
yup, you can read all day long. hands on is best way to learn. congrats on being a medic, getting it done out on the street. i’m still a little fish in big pond do’n the VFD thing. i still shake my head that 10k can show up for a communist rally in Missoula but the largest local VFD has to work very hard to get volunteers for fire and ems. guess get’n up at 0 dark 30 to save a life is just not that important.
I started out Volly emt now even here in rural seasonal “resort” area we are mostly a mix of full time medics and basics and Volly. Fire chiefs are mostly full time ish and a few departments have a mix of full time FF/medics mostly to take alarm calls
But basically my whole career was a product of being more prepared… Along with 12 plus years as a green side corpsman, (reserve) funny what path this whole preparedness thing leads us down!
Amen, Zero. Absolutely spot on.
If someone is serious about prepping, sit down with an MD, DO, or RN, and ask them what you’d need for 72 hrs to 2 weeks, not just for first aid, but the ongoing care of someone involved in anything from minor to major trauma.
That’s a “prepared” load out kit. An IFAK or whathaveyou is only for the first 30-60 minutes.
Anybody not planning on taking care of themselves and their group beyond the first 60 minutes of a given injury is planning to die a slow nasty death from third-world medical conditions: dehydration, malnutrition, and the after effects of prolonged filth and sepsis, among other things.
If that particular dead cat of a topic hit you, rectify it. Or just save that last bullet for yourself.