Serious Accidents Require Serious Emergency Supplies

You never know when an accident will occur, so you always need to be prepared. While the typical first aid kit will suffice for minor, run-of-the mill scrapes and cuts, you need more heavy-duty equipment for other circumstances. These include high sea activities, extreme adventures, camping and other outdoor activities. Having the right equipment will ensure you’re prepared for almost any emergency situation.

Traumatic wounds are one of the things you may have to deal with. To treat these, you will need a range of supplies including the following:

• Industrial strength gloves
• Irrigation syringes
• Medical tape
• Alcohol wipes
• Suture kit
• Iodine
• Various bandages
• Tourniquets

Your kit will ideally be suited to your environment. For example, if you’re at sea, you may need a maritime tourniquet which is specially designed to be used on the water.

Medications to include

Both over the counter and prescription medications can be included among your emergency supplies. The latter should only be sought and administered by those qualified to do so. Ibuprofen, antihistamines, Aspirin, oral rehydration tablets and Dramamine are some of the common first aid medicines that can be added. They should be accompanied by topical treatments like antibiotic ointments, antibacterial soap, anti-fungal creams and hydrocortisone.

Prescription drugs can include epinephrine to treat allergic reactions, amoxicillin to treat infections and fluconazole to prevent and treat fungal infections. Asthma inhalers should also be considered in case people have difficulty breathing.

How to store those supplies

Collecting the supplies is only part of the job; they need to be adequately stored. Medical supplies can be very sensitive to the environment and should not get wet or be placed in extremely humid circumstances. You need to choose a container that’s appropriate for your expected activities. Rafting or fishing will require a waterproof bag while a backpacking trip would be better served by something small and light.

In any case, the bag needs to be properly organised so you can quickly find what you need. You will lose precious time in an emergency situation if you have to empty the entire container to find one or two critical items. You need to ensure the supplies are separated according to usage. Perhaps prescription and non-prescription drugs could be stored separately with trauma response supplies clearly identified. All medication should be marked with the name of the drug and the strength.  Tupperware, Ziploc bags and pill containers can all be used for storage.

Keep your kit updated

Your emergency supplies will need to be checked regularly and updated as necessary. You don’t want to be carrying around expired medications or tools that are no longer useful. Also, if you use some of the items during an accident, you will need to replace them with new ones. If newer drugs come on the market that are considered to be more effective, you should also update your kit. It may be helpful to keep a checklist of what is supposed to be in the kit so you can carry out an inventory and act as necessary every few months.

No one wants an accident to occur. No matter how careful you are, the unthinkable sometimes happens and you need to be prepared. If you engage in high-risk activities, this is even more necessary. Be sure to properly stock an emergency medical supplies kit with as extensive a range of items as possible.