shtf /mass casualty help me kits

[medicmark]

Hi all, after the london incident I re evaluated my edc and thought good kit but not as effective as it could be, so, I thought about it and came up with simple "help me" kits and really cheep but very,very effective.
I actually keep one pack in my leg pocket on my combats.

So the kit is in 2 versions, pocket or pouch.
the pocket kit simply contains a plastic bag with 2 pairs of gloves, 2 wipes, 2 resus shields and 4 s10x10 cm dressing pads,
the pack covers ppe, can resus someone and also stop major bleeding.

but it also helps me by providing helpers with kit to aid the injured simply.

The pack kit is a larger version and is in a first aid pouch and contains 10 sets of masks/gloves/wipes but also has 3 2 hour light sticks, 30 parcel tags and sharpie so I can triage and 20 large 10x10 pads, small crepe bandages, 2 pairs of tuff cuts and tape. the pouches I use are the wilco build your own kit- £1.75 each and they also have a belt loop.

in total the kits cost less than £12 each. my 2 pouches are on my response kits.

again a simple idea to provide more helpers at an incident and let me do my thing.
would love your thoughts.
mark

[Jamesey1981]

As one of the unlucky people that have been involved in a major rail disaster, I have to say that if you're prepared to carry any kind of kit, no matter how basic, to hand out then good on you.

There were thirty something dead (or died from their injuries) and hundreds injured, some very seriously, there were a few of us doing what we could to help, but the kits on the trains were intended for patching up a few people that have fallen over, they weren't meant to cope with something like that, so we would have been glad of any supplies we could have got, as it was we were tearing up seat fabric, using ties, credit cards, anything we could to keep as much blood inside the more broken people as possible, with varying degrees of success unfortunately, with some of them their injuries were too severe or we hadn't found them fast enough, time is obviously a factor if someone has had a leg ripped off and there was a lot of debris in our way.

As it happens I did have some gloves to hand out, I was on my way to catering college at the time, so that was something at least.

[shocker]

Jamesey, I have read your post several times now and I am still as moved by it as the first time. Not much one can say except that Im glad you survived and good on yer, mate.

On the main subject, I am years out of date training wise other than reading and hands on. Vetinary, too, I suppose, but I really feel I need more and up to date, re-training.

In the past this was supplied by various organisations that I worked for. As a young child I attended a St Johns "club". I have looked around recently and all I see are very expensive, way beyond my means (very mean) in cost and access.

Does no-one do classes for the public good, like St Johns used to? I dont want to act beyond my confidence zone in an emergency and would like to brush up on the basics at least. That way I can carry a "help me" kit and at least hold the dressings in place on someone, as I am told by a responder, without them having to waste valuable time explaining which way up things go. As it were.

[Jamesey1981]

Cheers shocker, I'm not trying to say I'm some kind of hero or something, I'd like to think that most people would get in and try and help if they were in any state to do so.

The worst of it wasn't the blood and screaming, (but that was bad) but the decisions that you have to take in that kind of situation, there were some that were horribly injured but still barely alive, one lad was pretty much torn in half across the waist, and having to realise that there was nothing we could do for him and that we would have to leave him to die while we moved on to someone else that we did have a chance of saving was something that kept me awake at night for a long time, he wasn't the only one, we did what we could but there were only a few that were fit enough and together enough to help others, there were no bystanders, everyone had been in the crash and some were in a pretty poor state mentally as well as those that were physically injured, and it took a while before the emergency services arrived, they needed to get down onto the tracks with gear so they weren't being slow, it was just a bad place for it to happen.

Some did survive that otherwise wouldn't have done thanks to our efforts, but I don't like to think about those we couldn't help, that's something that was hard to live with, you can't help but feel guilt, no matter whether it's deserved.

[shocker]

Triage is terribly, horribly difficult for anyone with an ounce of empathy, even for those sad souls without any. I think that most on this forum have been at the sticky end of things one way or another, after that its a question of degree. Theres so much to carry as a survivor, without having had to make those awful choices, that I am not surprised that you had trouble coming to terms.

It only raises you in my opinion, that you say what you do, and Im sure thats true of the rest of the folk here. Like I said, not much else to give but "good on yer, mate" !

But all that just highlights the OP subject - having a little bit of EDC dressing kit, maybe a tourniquet even. Not that someone would use one without training, more like the military Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) of carrying you own first field dressing, so that if you are wounded there will always be a dressing to apply. Because you will be carrying it.

Mark, what section of Wilko is your pouch from? Can you do us a link? Also, any pointers for buying dressings and shears, other than the dreaded bay, or the local chemist ?

[Deeps]

I'd like to think that most people would get in and try and help if they were in any state to do so.

You'd be surprised mate, a lot of people only seem to be interested in no. 1, even when others are worse off than themselves unfortunately.

It only raises you in my opinion, that you say what you do, and Im sure thats true of the rest of the folk here. Like I said, not much else to give but "good on yer, mate" !

I'll echo Shocker's post, apart from a big Bravo Zulu, I hope you aren't dwelling on things that were outwith your control but were thrust upon you. We all deal with 'stuff' in our own way and I hope you're good mate.

[Yorkshire Andy]

You'd be surprised mate, a lot of people only seem to be interested in no. 1, even when others are worse off than themselves unfortunately.

[

Or in more recent times:

[Deeps]

You'd be surprised mate, a lot of people only seem to be interested in no. 1, even when others are worse off than themselves unfortunately.

[

Or in more recent times:

gettyimages-467390112_custom-e8fa0c9a7224b7172555577fde25a08949bde2d2-s900-c85.jpg

Very true, I was speaking to a guy a few years back who was telling me about when he fell off his scooter, lying there in a snotty heap in the middle of Bowness on Windemere. The first thing he knew a woman had come up to help who was a nurse who was trying to keep him lying down, the second thing he noticed was all the people with their phones out filming the incident.... Its a fecked up world we live in.

[Jamesey1981]

Took a few years to get over it properly for sure, but it was a fair while ago now, it's not something I'll forget in a hurry, but it's not something that keeps me awake any more.
I still don't like getting on trains though.

Even the paramedics that attended were hit pretty hard by it, they were having to make the same decisions, (and for a lot longer, when there were enough paramedics on scene and we were just in the way the police took those of us that had been helping and set us up in the staff area of a little supermarket that they were using as a base, the staff gave us hot drinks and helped us get cleaned up, we were all completely covered in blood, I went home in a supermarket uniform, my clothes were only fit for the incinerator.)

Here's an article with some comments from the responders: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/470196.stm

Just goes to show that no matter the training you've had there's not a lot that can prepare you for a scene like that.

[Deeps]

Took a few years to get over it properly for sure, but it was a fair while ago now, it's not something I'll forget in a hurry, but it's not something that keeps me awake any more.
I still don't like getting on trains though.

Even the paramedics that attended were hit pretty hard by it, they were having to make the same decisions, (and for a lot longer, when there were enough paramedics on scene and we were just in the way the police took those of us that had been helping and set us up in the staff area of a little supermarket that they were using as a base, the staff gave us hot drinks and helped us get cleaned up, we were all completely covered in blood, I went home in a supermarket uniform, my clothes were only fit for the incinerator.)

Here's an article with some comments from the responders: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/470196.stm

Just goes to show that no matter the training you've had there's not a lot that can prepare you for a scene like that.

I've been in situations where people are trained to react to deal with a scenario but they don't. That doesn't mean they can't or won't again if it happens and this is where leadership and experience play a massive part. Completely different to where you found yourself and had to deal with an alien situation.