Hey /k/. What should I have in my ifak. Currently I have 2 pairs

I'm thinking of adding a pair of trauma shears but I don't know whether to buy a large one or a little one. Also, what should I use as a carrier?

>>31735154
>3 tourniquets
>IFAK
>Individual First Aid Kit
>INDIVIDUAL
I'm just joshing, breh. If that trauma bandage has quick clot, all you really need is a Tension pneumothorax needle (if you know how to use them.) I would also recommend trauma shears.

>>31735203
That's what the thread is for my guy. Yes, i'll admit i'm overzealous in my amounts. So one of everything yeah?

>>31735154
Remember, the primary purpose for an IFAK is to provide immediate first aid to the individual in order to stay alive until more medical aid and resources are available. What will you need surgical lube for though? you planning on doing rectal exams or putting in catheters? Surgical lube is for a clinical setting, not for trauma care. In a technical sense, water and blood are a lubricant as it reduces friction between moving parts.

>>31735203
Trauma shears and a tension pneumothorax needle wouldn't hurt. However it is really easy to fuck someone up with one those needles if you don't know what you're doing. Standard protocol is mid-clavicular line and between the 3rd or 4th intercostal space, do not ride the needle under a rib as there are blood vessels there you can rupture, and last thing you need is for the pleural cavity to start filling with blood.

You need some elastic bandages, AKA ACE Wrap, add some rolled gauze and you have a pressure dressing. My IFAK is primarily tourniquets, ACE wrap, and rolled gauze and a chest seal.

Feel free to keep more than one tourniquet. Some femoral bleeds may take more than one, also the windlass could bend to the point where it snaps before bleeding is controlled. Get a SOF-T tourniquet too.

Combat gauze, NCD x2, throw a tampon or two in there for gsws.

>>31735710
Surgical lube is probably for NPA.
Also, it's the second intercostal space right above third rib mid-clavicular.

>>31735807
Well, shit you're right about the needle d. 3rd and/or 4th intercostal space is for use along the axillary line (side of chest under arms). However for the NPA we used saliva. Gross, but effective.

Also, know what's not fun? Trying to run while breathing though an NPA only. It's there to maintain an open airway, don't expect to be able to do much else with it.

File: kit_ifak.jpg (608KB, 1134x760px) Image search: [Google]

608KB, 1134x760px

Okay, what else am I missing besides an Asherman Chest Seal and a tension pneumothorax needle?

>>31736142
>blood, saliva or lube for NPA
>5th ICS in mid axillary for NCD
This is why we don't teach bangbangs to do NCDs or IVs anymore.

>>31738228
Combat gauze, NCD(like you mentioned before) and ACE wrap. Also try and grab a HALO for an OCD (chest seal).

>>31738228
Some phat white asses judging from the thread

>>31735185
Buy a Benchmade seatbelt cutter. Chinook medical makes some good IFAKs and gear in general.

>>31735787
SOFTT-Ws work better. And the new CATs have thicker windlasses.

>>31735154
Have gloves in little ready wrap thingies. North American Rescue sells some like this. Takes up less space in a crowded IFAK and is more organized.

Put big "buddy tabs" on all the tape so you can use it when emergency hits and your coordination is shit.

Personally I only have one TQ inside a personal mounted IFAK itself. Helps it stay organized. But I kept multiple spares all around my kit and in secondary IFAKs all over the place.

More occlusive seals. I'd probably ditch some of the gauze to make space.

A Flashlight is really nessesary as an accesible item, IMO. Doesn't have to be in the IFAK itself so long as it's always on attached kit.

Big, big, big thing is that I don't have just one medical kit. I have one on my belt, one on my ruck, a mini backup in my chestrig, big one in my kitchen, big one in my living room, big one in my car (this one also gets put inside my range bag at the range). All clearly marked and with glowtape to be findable even in the dark.

You're on the right track, OP. The make or break now is how much experience and training you got.


Not a medic, but I did go through TCCC when it was really restricted to get into, and I dealt with a real life mass casualty incident dealing with wounded coming off a convoy that got fucked up and then got secondarily fucked up as the forward outpost got mortared while it was crowded with wounded. So, I know more than a rando off the street, but will step back to a medic/EMT's knowledge.

>All this medical jargon
Anyone have any book recommendations for someone not knowing what tf y'all talking bout

>>31735154
It's going to sound silly, but if it's a trauma-oriented first aid kit, as it appears to be, and you expect gunshot wounds, an individually wrapped tampon. Make sure to get the kind without an applicator. Preferably the kind with a string. Every man in my infantry unit had one. The reasoning being that the IFAK was not for you, but for the guy treating you when you got hit.

Anyways. Tampon. Just remove the wrapping, pop it in the entry wound, and seal it shut with tape. Expands to fill the hole and absorbs a great deal of fluid. It's a fast, simple stopgap to something that is likely far beyond what you'll be equipped to handle in the field. String makes it easier for the docs to remove it when they're ready to do their thing.

There's purpose-built things that do the same thing, but I can't remember the name and they're way more expensive and only marginally more effective at doing what they're accomplishing. Though, I did hear that the medics fucking hated us using tampons for GSWs because the little fibers were a pain in the ass to clean out or something.

>>31738536
Dude, no.

For a GSW on the trunk of the body, use an occlusive seal.

The GSWs that get packed with gauze are in the transitional parts of the body (armpit and groin pretty much) where a seal or TQ won't be effective. In those, the GSW hole is going to be messy and you are going to need to pack a fuckton of gauze in for it to be effective. Far more than is in a little tampon applicator. You need gloves and a medical pack of gauze and to fingerbang that shit in there and then pressure dress it.

The tampon thing sounds cute, but it's an outdated DIY technique from a decade ago.