I recently attended a TacMed class taught by Doc Gunn, hosted by Marksmanship Matters.
For one day, it was $260; well spent for just the material/handout.
The few times I’ve helped with major trauma, taking charge & being calm/professional was as much help as stopping bleeding.
You must push through the self-doubt to take charge. Allow the care for others to overcome your fears and take two actions and you’ll be on your way to help others!
I took my first tacmed class back in 2008/2009. It was a one day class where we learned to assess a person’s condition. Communicate under fire. Very simple techniques that work were practiced.
We practiced tourniquets on ourselves, to the point of numb & hurting limbs. There the seed was planted that my weak-link was medical response. So, I read the PHTLS Prehospital Trauma Life Support: Military Edition & bought over-priced medical kits.
Doc Gunn’s tacmed was much more useful than my last tacmed class in 2008. We talked at length about bullet placement and the importance of Marksmanship. We did brain stem drills and upper torso mid-line shoots at paper targets.
So, I was DONE procrastinating building a Everyday Carry (EDC) Major Medical Trauma “kit”. So, I made TWO. I think you should consider doing the same.
My requirements of EDC Med kit:
1) Flexible enough to be used for hundreds of uses/applications.
2) Small enough to have WITH me at all times. AKA concealable.
3) Be able to manage bleeding from major trauma for the 0-45 minutes (Stay alive the first 45 minutes!).
I really like what Ron Hood said, if you can’t fix it with duct tape and a bandage, you need a helicopter ride (speaking about being way way out in the wilderness).
Items to include:
- Neckerchief or a blue-medical towel like mine.
- 1″ gorilla duct tape. at least a million uses.
- 4 “protective” gloves.
Prior to packaging EDC Major Med Kit
Home-made vacuum sealed EDC Med-kit
EDC Medkit installed in “discrete” Vertx pant cargo pocket.
This home-made vacuum seal, got a small hole in it. So, I’m looking for a flat EDC equivalent that won’t wear out.
http://www.itstactical.com/store/edc/its-edc-trauma-kit/
Recommended car gear:
We practiced..
The following is used by the Permission of Doc Gunn.
Tactical Treatment of Gunshot Wounds Kit.
(In Memory of M-SGT William Chris Dwiggins. 1946-2002)
Basic:
2 bags of saline, tubing and angiocaths.
ABD pads, 4x4s and Kerlix. 6″ ACE. (Not necessary if you have an Israeli Battle Dressing.)
ISRAELI BATTLE DRESSINGS. (See below.)
HALO SEAL or a Vaseline gauze pad in its wrapper. (Remove one side of the wrapper and tape three edges down with tape to form a flutter dressing for sucking chest wounds.)
Trauma scissors.
1″ and 3″ adhesive tape.
Flexible nasal airway. (#28-32 French. The correct length is from corner of mouth to external auditory canal.)
14 and 16 gauge angiocaths. (#14 angiocatheters should include both 1¼ ” for IVs and 2” for Tension Pneumothoraces.)
Alcohol swabs.
Latex gloves.
2 Blue chucks. (Wrap each IV bag and tubing set in one of these and secure with latex tourniquet.)
Advanced Kit: to also include:
Chest tube and flutter valve.
#10 scalpel. 4-0 Silk on straight-needle suture.
7.5 Endotracheal tube, laryngoscope and bag-valve mask.
SOF-TT
“Snivel Kit:“ (This is for the minor things that occur where you don’t want to access your major kit.)
Tylenol or Advil/Aleve, Band-Aids, alcohol swabs, Bacitracin.
Diaper wipes are big and wet and good for cleaning wounds prior to Band-Aids.
Israeli Battle Dressing:
It’s a semi-flexible ACE attached to an absorbent gauze dressing with a plastic clip on the other side. You apply the dressing and wrap the strap around (an extremity or the trunk or a head) to the desired tension. IF a tourniquet is required, you can twist and lock the plastic clip. (Write a “T” on the victim’s forehead when tourniquet applied.) It comes in either a 4” or 6” Olive Drab dressing. I prefer the 6” as the all-purpose dressing. The NSN for the 6” dressing is # 6510-01-492-2275. (The 4” is NSN# 6510-01-460-0849.) They may be obtained from Performance Systems at (888) 737-7978.
Misc. Equipment (Written in 2004):
There is a dandy 7x6x3″ orange nylon pack by North American Rescue Products. It contains an ABD, large and small Kerlix, a 2″ ACE, trauma scissors, two pairs of latex gloves, Vaseline gauze dressing (3×9″), 4x4s, 2x2s, mole skin, Band-Aids, safety pins, alcohol swabs, tweezers, 1″ adhesive tape. These are contained in two compartments. I take this kit with me when we vacation or travel. (Similar units are similar available as the Traveler’s Medical Kit in a blue bag with bandage scissors from Brigade Quartermasters for $39.99. Add a pair of $5 trauma scissors.) Gander Mountain has an excellent kit for $49.99.
There are dedicated nylon TacMed packs, but a simple and brightly colored gym bag would do for range safety purposes. Be aware that the kit tends to “explode” when you open it. The dedicated kits have many small compartments so you may directly access what you want. (You must be very familiar with the pack before you need it in a TacMed setting.) We would be well served with a gym bag as it is “pre-exploded.” Have extra room for rummaging around.
Know your equipment bag well. You must be able to find what you want instantly or in the dark.
Doc Gunn, Inc., 1492 Roanoke Road, Ste #73, Daleville, VA 24083
“Willingness is a state of mind; READINESS is a statement of fact.”
