Gunshot Wound & First-Aid Kits: Everything You Need to Know to Build Your Own

Deciding what to carry in a medical kit is highly dependent on anticipating the injuries and illnesses you may encounter in a given situation. It’s also dependent on the space available for your gear. After all, the space available when partaking in outdoor activities off the beaten path can be quite limited. You must eliminate unnecessary items so that you can carry other essentials. If you carry a gunshot trauma kit on your person or in a range bag, it’s even more essential that the contents remain compact and free of clutter from unnecessary items.To get more news about IFAK kit, you can visit rusuntacmed.com official website.

In choosing components to use in my medical kits, I drew on my experience of over 16 years as a paramedic, seven years as an ER nurse, and five years in my current role as a nurse practitioner in the ER and in trauma surgery. I saw definite patterns of injury related to outdoor sports, including shooting sports, and thought about what someone with only basic first-aid knowledge could carry in order to temporarily treat these injuries until they could be evaluated and treated definitively by medical providers.

As a shooter and outdoor enthusiast, there are two essential medical kits I’d choose to have with me at all times: a gunshot trauma kit containing the bare-bones essentials to treat catastrophic penetrating injuries, and an expanded Individual First Aid Kit.
It’s estimated that 40 percent of trauma-related deaths worldwide are due to bleeding and its consequences. Specifically in penetrating injuries including gunshot wounds, injuries most likely to cause death are a result of internal and/or external hemorrhage, catastrophic brain injury, and penetrating chest trauma resulting in compromised breathing due to pneumothorax or tension pneumothorax. Of these injuries, there are several components in gunshot trauma kits that can increase the odds of survival until definitive care is reached. These components include:
A CAT-7 tourniquet is one of several recommended by the Committee for Tactical Combat Casualty Care. One of the more recently approved options to consider is the SAM-XT by SAM Medical. There are many great training videos on both manufacturers’ websites. What do the civilian trauma societies say about tourniquets? The big guns of trauma in the U.S., the American College of Surgeons, Pediatric Trauma Society, and Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS), provide guidelines recommending training for everyone in bleeding control and the application of a tourniquet if direct pressure and pressure dressings fail to control bleeding. They don’t recommend specific manufacturers of tourniquets, but all agree that purpose-built, manufactured tourniquets are preferred over improvised versions.

You can find a Stop the Bleed training class and download a free brochure on how to recognize and treat life-threatening bleeding using tourniquets and wound packing at Bleedingcontrol.org. You can also search for a free Stop the Bleed class in your area on the site, and learn how to become an instructor. The most important thing to consider in choosing your tourniquet is whether you know how and when to use it.

Wound packing gauze is used to fill gaps caused by penetrating wounds to the groin, armpits, or extremities. It isn’t recommended for use in the abdomen or chest. The theory behind wound packing is simple: If you can fit a finger into the wound, you should pack it before applying a pressure dressing. The reason for this is because if there’s a large channel in the wound, there are likely broken blood vessels leaking into the space. Applying external pressure on top of the wound will still allow bleeding into the space. If you pack gauze tightly into the space, you’ll stop the bleeding deep in the wound.

Plain wound packing gauze is very inexpensive. There are many generic brands out there. This is one item where you can save a little in order to splurge on a brand-name tourniquet or better set of trauma shears. Alternatively, you can upgrade to gauze treated with a hemostatic agent that promotes faster clotting, such as QuikClot or Celox. I prefer the QuikClot rolled gauze in my kit, because it can be used as wound packing or as roller gauze for an additional pressure dressing on an extremity.