Do you carry a FAK?

[Hypnagog]

I always carry a small first aid kit in my rucksack, usually pepped up with a few other items like additional painkillers for backache, needle and thread etc.

For various reasons, there is always an extended kit in the car, which usually isn't that far away.

 

[mrcharly]

My cycle bag has a small box with some essentials. Gloves, some dressings (sized to cover road rash), small plasters, bit of tape. It's designed around coping with a cycle crash - which is mostly like either going to result in an ambulance call or covering things up until I can get home and treat them properly.

I'd add some iodine solution if I were on a longer trip.

The tubes of antiseptic cream should be chucked not long after opening. Seems that bugs can grow on the cream (reported here by a a&e medic).

 

[swright81076]

Anti diarrhea tablets in case food doesn't agree with you. Hydration salts in case of diarrhea or heat exhaustion, that sort of thing that doesn't come in standard kits.

Aye, a couple of packets of anti diarrhoea and dioralyte is always good.

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[leon-1]

I have three kits, personal, general and comprehensive. I normally have one at least with me. Although they overlap on some contents I put them to gether so that each kit complimented the other and there's nothing in there that I haven't been trained to use.

 

[bigbear]

Since I got tickets for looking after others I tightened up a lot on this, Trying to get that perfect compromise between having what you might need and being silly taking the kitchen sink.
FWIW I have a pretty big kit in the car for the I hope never to be encountered RTA, a kit in my bushcraft bag of bits, a climbing sack kit and a walking sack kit. The climbing kit has quick lot and more trauma. Type stuff, the walking kit a CPR mask etc! the bushcraft kit plasters etc? Trying to match what you might need to practical carry. Tick tweezers are essential in my kits !

 

[Coldfeet]

I carry a base kit in the car which I have added to over time.

Base kit is similar to this (although not that expensive!) http://www.amazon.co.uk/St-John-Amb...199971&sr=8-8&keywords=st+johns+first+aid+kit

 

[tree beard]

I carry a small one in the side pocket of my response pak (EDC) and a more comprehensive kit in an Maxpedition FR-1 that I carry in my main pack.

 

[The Ratcatcher]

I have a belt pouch with a CPR shield, gloves, plasters, wipes and a Maglite Solitaire on my EDC belt kit; a field dressing, triangular bandage, a tin containing plasters, wipes, tick hooks and other bits in my bushcraft kit; a "Crash Bag" with enough kit to treat a couple of RTC victims in the car all the time, and if I think I might need it, I put a large Trauma/Medical Bag in the boot as well.

 

[Goatboy]

Aye, a couple of packets of anti diarrhoea and dioralyte is always good.

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Don't know about you Steve but the taste of Dioralyte makes me want to hurl? I use sport type hydration tablets. Imodium Instants are very good and quick though

 

[NS40]

These days I seldom leave home without one. I got fed up though forgetting to take one with me so now have a range of small kits made up using poundshop kits as a starting point (mostly just to get a cheap little bag with a FAK sign on it). I add in extra bits of kit, sometimes tailored to the activity.

I keep one in the rucksack I take to work, my day sack and my bergen. They have a selection of plasters, dressings, space blanket, single use saline, couple of bandages, tweezers, etc. The ones in my day sack and bergen are a bit bigger and include useful bits such as tic removers, dioraltye, painkillers, etc.

A larger kit stays in the car but if we're off on a longer trip, we carry a larger kit with a full range of meds , selection of dressings/bandages and stuff like dental repair kit (great if a crown comes loose when camping or even in a strange town).

My wife thinks I'm a bit obsessive (like she used to think I was about my bushcraft kit...until she got interested in bushcraft...I probably am though)

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[AJB]

Strikes me, what we need is a recommended list of contents, perhaps divided by activity - EDC, Car, Motorbike, rucksack, day hike, overnight, camping... what do you think?

 

[sausage100uk]

depends on your skill level. for me there's things i'd want in anything more than a pocket fak (laryngoscope and macgills forceps and some minor surgery/suture kit are one example) but other people might not.

the most useful part of your kit is getting training, you can make a bandage out of lots of stuff, but knowing how to effectively stop bleeding, splint a fracture or clear an airway is more valuable than any bit of "FAK kit"

 

[Quixoticgeek]

I carry a pair of IDF field dressings. One big, one small. I used to carry a single Nato FFD, but this gives me two dressings in much the same space. I don't worry about them being in a pouch or anything, they are rugged enough I just throw them in the top pocket of my pack, in a bike bag, or a thigh pocket when ever I head out.

If I can't fix it with 2 field dressings, chances are, I'm not gonna fix it. If it's not enough to justify opening the dressing, then it probably doesn't need much.

I tend to have a tube of Germoline in my pack, along with a tube of anti histamines during the summer, but I don't move it from pack to pack like I do the dressings. I have pondered adding a couple of plasters and some micropore tape to the field dressings, but I'm trying to keep this as compact as I can.

That all said, there's little point in carrying a FAK if you don't also carry the knowledge of how to use it in your head. A first aid course is invaluable. I did mine with the Red Cross, but there are other trainers out there.

Reminder also, if you pick up a blade, pick up your FAK.

Hth.

J

 

[Scots_Charles_River]

I never took mine today but my mate tripped and nearly skewered her calf with her front crampons. So need to get an IDF type bandage.

 

[ganstey]

I have four levels of FAK:

1. I have a small belt pouch that contains gloves, CPR faceshield, and a few plasters. Also small enough to drop into a cargo-trouser pocket if I don't want it to be conspicuous.

2. A St John kit like the one someone posted a link to. I bought mine direct from the SJA whilst on a course - they were on special offer at £10 They do contain heaps of stuff in a small and easily-carried pack.

3. A 'medical pack'. Contains meds, various dressings, micropore tape, diorilite, and a selection of traditional/natural remedies for self medication. I take it with me whenever I go away as I know it has pretty much everything in it I'm likely to need if I'm unwell or have an injury I can treat myself. All packed into a PLCE trauma pouch.

4. An emergency pack (based on an old 20-person FA@W pack) with a few bits added/changed that stays in the van. Geared towards trauma first aid as might be encountered at an RTC. It's been used a couple of time, but the last RTC I witnessed involved an ambulance on a blue-light run :yikes: Luckily no-one was injured.

 

[Duggie Bravo]

I carry a small one most of the time.
I have a Gelert in the car and when I am out with the scouts I carry a Life Systems Mountain Leader, but was able to buy a the Mountain Leader Pro bag so I can fit the extra bits and pieces in it.


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[Buggane]

A variety of plasters, gloves, micropore, mepore and salt is all I carry at the most and the plasters and salt do get used but I've never needed anything more. The tweezers and scissors on my SAK for the fiddly bits.

 

[BlueTrain]

I have one that I take with me to the woods and also when I travel. Because of a post on another forum, I even brought it with me this morning. It's one that I put together myself and it's been mostly the same for the last 40 years with only a couple of changes. Originally I used a zippered pouch for everything but after that wore out I switched to a plastic Rubbermaid kitchen box that's about the size of a sandwich, 5.5x4.75x2.25 inches. It weighs 8.75 ounces, if the little postage scale I used is to be believed.

There's more in there than first aid stuff, however, mainly because with my previous arrangement, which was a pouch with two separate compartments, I kept little odds and ends on one side, the 1st aid stuff on the other side. I'm not sure if a box or soft pouch is better. The non-first aid stuff includes scissors, "space blanket," some nylon repair tape and matches. There's supposed to be tweezers there but they seem to have gone missing. But my new Swiss Army Knife "Sentinel" has tweezers. The Sentinel is just about perfect for a pocket knife, by the way.

The first aid stuff includes about a dozen assorted Band-aids (sticking plasters), some larger pads, a piece of moleskin, two Ibuprofen tablets and a little metal Bayer aspirin box with mixture of a aspirin and something stronger that I don't remember the name of. The box holds 12 tablets but there's only ten there right now. In 40 years, I've only used tablets out of that box and nothing else, ever. There's one more item there, too.

Given that I've only used headache pills out of everything that's there, I've wondered about the value of what I have. Small bandaids are probably unnecessary and probably so is the space blanket. So I started thinking what I needed a first aid kit for in the first place. The only injuries I've suffered over their years since I was little have been falls and a few rather bad cuts from saws and, uh, being in fights. Band-aids would have been useless. So I included some time back an army field dressing, which in this case is a US Army "Dressing, First Aid, Field." It seems like a reasonable thing to do but I haven't deleted anything else. Mostly I just sort of selected some things just so the box would be full.

I used to include a roll of white medical tape but it wouldn't fit in the box and I'm not sure where it is at the moment but I still have a couple of rolls. One thing that's missing and which I've never had is antiseptic cream of any kind. I also carry along according to the season, sunblock, insect repellant and hand balm (I use Badger healing balm all winter long) and sometimes lip balm. But I don't count that as first aid stuff.

I'm sure I'm not including something that's essential but even at home, I don't seem to ever use any medication stronger than aspirin and I'm not sure the aspirin does any good and I have my doubts about insect repellant.

 

[munkiboi182]

I have two. One large one, fully comprehensive with everything I could possibly need. That stays in my car or comes with me when I'm running courses. The other is a small one that either sits on my belt or clips to the outside of my daypack. Has plasters, savlon, tweezers, small bandages etc. I top them up, check dates etc on a monthly basis.

 

[MrHare]

Running pack:

empty dextrose tablet tube with
a couple of tampons (very compact, and approximates a field dressing, also soaks up blood for those messy but not serious cuts),
small tick twister
various sizes of plaster
gaffer tape wrapped around the outside
a couple of loratidine (for my own use, in case I forget)
a couple of safety pins

This gets tweaked for those events that require particular supplies

Field archery belt pouch:
as above, in a different container (an old ear plug box). This kits seen more use than any other - *never* try and pull bracken up with your bare hands :-/

Day to day bag:
as above, combined with sewing kit and a few other bits. Marks and Sparks strong mints tin.

Walking pack:

All the above (except sewing stuff) plus ibuprofen, dressings, antiseptic, triangular bandages, scissors, *notepad and pen for recording vitals in an emergency*, CPR mask. In a small square belt pouch bought as a FAK from blacks.

Van:

All the above plus dextrose tabs, clingfilm, more dressings/bandages, space blanket, probably some other stuff I can't think of offhand. In an ortlieb FAK drysack. Goes in my pack when leading group walks, especially in winter, but it's a bit on the heavy side. The ortleib bag was expensive, but it's strong, hardwearing and waterproof.