E-Mail 'Weatherproofing My Medic Bag - Part 1, by Skyrat' To A Friend

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1. My limited experience with injuries include:
   * thrashing
   * potty-mouth at high-volumes
   * barfing
   * grabbing my clothes/extremities/hair simultaneously while clawing my eyes
   * defecation
   * unconsciousness turning the vic into wet-noodle deadweight
   * and the potential of losing the vic.

   I would never not do my Good Samarian best… my presence always makes a diff.
   But my skills may not be enough.

   And I always own the call of quitting the rescue.
   I am no good to anybody if I become another vic.
   Examples:
   * a drowning person will most definitely try to drown me… quite energetically.
   * a student pilot is a homicidal maniac with murderous intent for instructors.
   * a vehicle crash is a war-zone — traffic will try to drive over me from all directions… including overhead.

   I never donate my warm clothes to a vic on an icy mountain.
   The rescue may leave me stranded — overnight in weather — while I watch my jacket/radio/fire-starter disappear on the helicopter.

   What else?
   I do my job, I don’t do it for medals or adoring reporters or holiday cards from the grateful vic.

   What else?
   Equipment helps skills.
   Rehearsal helps skills.
   Continuing Education helps skills.
   Cross-Training helps skills.
   Experience helps skills.
   Playing the vic helps skills.
   Teaching helps skills.
   Watching old-timers helps skills.

2. Placing medic bag items in Food Saver bags is a great idea, but costly. Food saver bags are way over priced for the quantity you get. Your better bet would be to go to Cabelas and purchase their patented vacuum-seal bags. They come in various sizes and rolls to make your own custom size. You can get a box of one hundred 6″x 10″ for ~$15. Plus these bags have a notch on the side that assists with ripping the bag open. That might be far better than trying to use a knife or razor in a stressful situation.

   Peace.

3. Love this look! Always good to see others approaches, always!

   Mine is –
   A solid nylon bag, use silicone tent/canvas spray, to make it water resistant, and seal small items in heavy duty ziplock- we use this for our tents and tarps so we have a bit!,

4. We keep everything individually wrapped in ziploc bags inside a (purportedly) waterproof case. A lot of the items we get into periodically (bandaids, painkillers, neosporin, etc), so I wouldn’t want to seal them with Foodsaver wrap, but there are other items we rarely use (roll gauze) that take up a lot of room and will be more compact. Will give it a try 🙂

5. Large Marge: And, skills help you extemporize when supplies like in The Book, are not at hand.

   Mtnman 1958: Thank you for the Cabela’s tip. Next field trip, look-see!

   JustADad: More one way to do it. This is an evolution from the venerable Tackle-Box-as-first-aid-kit. After I had tipped a tackle box, a time or three, on a scene, the bag-over-my-shoulder idea began to appear more attractive.

   1. No kidding on the cabelas tip. I’m going to look online first since the closest one is an hour away and traffic around here is pretty bad right now.

   2. Amen to the bag/vs/ box, I do have a larger kit that resides in the vehicle in trips and house that is boxed. But, all smaller bags, are, bags! Agreed 100! Again, loved this article and just read its companion piece!

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