You know what a blow out kit is? You should!

[PvtPyle]

It isn't for your tire either. It is in case you blow out something important on you, like an artery or spleen.

The military is now issuing these nice fancy personal blow out kits for all of their soldiers. And shockingly enough, they include tourniquets. Now before everyone starts talking about how dangerous they are....did you know that there has not been a military or clinical study on their use since the civil war? So when they talk about how dangerous they are and how they kill tissue for no good reason please keep in mind that they had to wait three or four days for treatment. Yeah, you are going to get some gangreene and sepsis. The reality is that you can use one safely for several hours. And the golden hour, the first hour after you are hit is the most important.

So anyway, we get these nice little kits that are for our own use. The docs have extra stuff to help you out but these are for your emergency use, ON YOU!!! So they are bare bones kits.

So what do you need? This:



And whats in it is oh so important. From left to right:
Curlex bandages. You pull this apart to pack wounds with
Oral hydration salts. You can go down very quickly over there, so you need a way to rehydrate the important salts VERY quickly
Eye patch
1" ratchet strap. The cheapest and easiest to use tourniquets on the market
J tube (I hate these, not good if you are concious)
Angiocath X2. They let the air out of your chest cavity so your lung can fill with air.
Ace bandage. Hold those fingers on the hand or the curlex in the wound.
Nose trumpet. The techincal name is long, so nose trumpet works. They are good if you are still awake and your face is gone....
Mole skin, to seal those sucking chest wounds
Two military pressure bandages.

So thats it. Now the important thing is that this kit be carried on you, where you can reach it with both hands! and you need to lay it out the the tourniquet on top so you can get to it FAST. You need to be able to get it over your stump with one hand, in mere seconds. You have about 20 seconds after your part flies off to get the blood flow stops before you start to get light headed. You got less than a minute before you are out and it is over for you to help yourself. Everything else in there can be put on or stuck in by your buddies. You just get the bleeding stopped!

[JesseL]

  Boy, if ever there was a set of tools that you'd hate to ever have to use but be damn grateful for if you did...

[THE NORSEMAN]

I can see many vocations that would benefit from keeping one close.  Farmers, construction workers, loggers, and any other occupations that utilize big equipment.  Anyone that lives miles from help(lucky souls) or goes deep into the wilderness also.  There was a guy a few years back that had to self amputate to escape a fallen rock.  Had he had that in his pack, I imagine the experience would have been easier.

Where can we mere civilians acquire one?  Or is it a build it yourself thing?

[Thernlund]

What about Quikclot?

http://www.z-medica.com/quikclot/index.asp


-T.

[Bo Smith]

Build it yourself. Mine is very similar to Jamie's (wonder where I learned it? Hmmm... ) I'll post pics when I get back home.

I don't have any of those salts, but I have added a burn dressing and a new quick clot gauze roll (lower endothermic temps and no messy and dangerous debriding).

[THE NORSEMAN]

Thernlund, this looks like it's for use where quikclot is just flat out not gonna be enough I'm thinking.

[Medikman]

Not a bad basic kit, personally I would add a few more bandages like abd pads or 8x10's for excessive bleeding and they don't take up much room, but overall not bad. The thing with a tourniquet is that when you are at the point where you will be applying one there has been a near or full amputation. Tourniquets will never be taken out of the protocols IMHO. I teach C.E.R.T. classes for our county and we teach it to them also, I stress multiple times to them "Life over Limb"

Curlex has a million and one uses I think I have a dozen rolls of it in my kit. Good choice on the angio's, looks like 2 inch 14 ga.
and just for useless trivia:  J tube = oropharyngeal airway (O.P.A.) and Nasal Trumpet = nasalpharyngeal airway (N.P.A.)

You can build these kits yourself, however I would caution against the angio's, even the airways unless you have been trained to use them correctly. I have all of this plus a bunch more in my personal kit, mine is a trauma kit, but then again this is what I do for a living.

[Thernlund]

Thernlund, this looks like it's for use where quikclot is just flat out not gonna be enough I'm thinking.

Heh.  Quikclot will stop a severed femoral artery bleed.  If you have a wound where Quikcot won't help, I think you may be beyond field help.


-T. 

[THE NORSEMAN]

Well, I didn't realize it was that good.  Learn something every day.

But I wonder if it's good enough you can be mobile to any degree?  I don't know, that's why I'm asking.

With a torniquet, I know you can move around as long as it doesn't come loose.  Will quickclot allow you to do that?  Or is it just basically a scab, and if you open it up you're in trouble all over again?

[PvtPyle]

There are some major disadvantages to quickclot. Mainly the burning that goes with it. Most military units will not let their members use it AT ALL. There are other options besides the quickclot for the same problem.

Keep in mind that this kit is to be carried in one small pouch and only has the items needed to keep you from bleeding to death or suffocating. until the doc gets there to fix you up some more. If it takes him 45 seconds to get there, that may be 15 too long.

[Bo Smith]

James- check out the reformulated Quick Clot. It's only endothermic to about one hundred and five degrees, much lower than the earlier formula. Additionally, the impregnated quaze rolls do not cause the problems with debriding that the powder caused. In fact, the Quick Clot bandages are fairly idiot-proof.   

[Thernlund]

If I have a giant hole in my upper thigh, I think the burning is the last thing I'm going to worry about, eh?  ACS and ACS+ are supposed to be cooler too.

Hey man... Quikclot has it's uses.  It's a good product.  Better than bleeding to death.  Used in conjunction with a tourniquet it may even add 10 or so minutes so the previously mentioned 45 seconds.

It was just a thought.


-T.

[THE NORSEMAN]

Thanks guys, I'm learning and that's what we're about, eh?

Strangely enough, I'm all about not dying.  Whatever it takes.

[Thernlund]

Strangely enough, I'm all about not dying.

LOL!


-T.

[Bo Smith]

Here is my take on the blowout kit. I put it together after taking FBMG's Emergency Preparedness course. I took the class and material very seriously, and made very few changes from the listed items in the course material, and even then after careful research, and conferring with some local trauma nurses.

The first picture shows how it all fits on my rig. This is a Tactical Tailor MAV with X Harness. It is light and handy, to grab and go. I have the blowout kit just off center, for easy access with either hand. I've included this picture to show that the entire contents fit within the pouch snugly, but without binding the zipper.



(Figure One, the pouch on the MAV)

The second picture shows some of the contents:

1.) One ratchet-strap tourniquet
2.) 4.5 inch x 4 yard (stretched) Kerlix gauze roll
3.) One pair nitrile gloves, size large
4.) One Mylar emergency blanket
5.) One elastic bandage
6.) One pair EMT shears



(Figure Two, contents)

Figure three shows more of the contents of the pouch:

1.) Two Israeli Battle Dressings
2.) Two sixteen gauge Angiocaths
3.) One nasopharyngeal airway, size medium



(Figure Three, contents)

The last picture shows the last of the contents:

1.) Two 4 inch x 4 inch pieces of Moleskin.
2.) One Quik Clot Advanced Clotting Sponge
3.) One Medi-Burn trauma burn dressing.



(Figure Four, the last of the contents)

I think these items represent the basics for initially treating common trauma (bleeding, airway, shock, burns). The purpose is not to give the kind of medical care necessary to heal a wound, but to keep one alive until evacuation is secured.

This is the kit that each carries to either treat themselves, or to allow a buddy to treat. Each should carry their own. That is to say, it is for you, or others, to treat you. You'll treat your buddy out of his own kit. Thus, it is of a necessity for each to carry, and maintain, his own kit.

[ridata]

Good kit - I don't see the oral and nasopharyngeal airways (it took me a minute to remember the name after not practicing with them for 6 months) saving your life in 45 seconds. You aren't going to be able to get them in yourself, anything that is going to be done with them is going to be done after help reaches you.

[Oohrah]

Familiar with the concept, and would like to build one.   However,
finding the contents or sources    I have a suture kit, and after
instruction and practice on pig skin and chicken breasts skills improve
in a short period of time.   Above questions on blood flow is correct.
Stoppage means the loss of that limb.   Bleed out would be in minutes
in severe cases, and is not survivalable.   Also care to go over a rib
in a certain place to allow a collapsed lung or blood filled cavity must
be done with care.   Without choices for outside medical help,guess
it becomes a moral issue that perhaps many will not choosen to
approach.   Also if further advanced medical care is not available,
the odds are great the victim will not survive even if all skills are used.

[DRZinn]

Hey, does QuikClot have a shelf life? I have some I go in Iraq - 5 years ago.

[PvtPyle]

I put in my own nose trumpet during training......... Didn't like it but I did it.

[Bo Smith]

I put in my own nose trumpet during training......... Didn't like it but I did it.

Owie! Ow! Ow! Ow!

Just "Ow!"

You are the effin' man!

Bigger question: is that the one you're still packin'; or did you chuck it for a new one?

-Bo

[Penguin]

Hey, does QuikClot have a shelf life? I have some I go in Iraq - 5 years ago.

I does have shelf life though I can't remeber what it is off the top of my head.

[Oohrah]

I  am not sure, but it seems ingrediant might be ground up
shells (shellfish, clams, or whatever).   I would almost bet
than burn over bleeding out ... You need not worry about the
burn while bleeding out!

[Bo Smith]

Hey, does QuikClot have a shelf life? I have some I go in Iraq - 5 years ago.

Does it say on the package?

[Thernlund]

Shelf life...

http://www.z-medica.com/quikclot/zmedica_faq_answer.asp?faqID=13


-T.

[Badkarma]

An alternative to QuikClot is Celox.  Works in hypothermic conditions, with blood containing heparin or warfarin, stops severe arterial bleeding and generates no heat.  I keep 6 in my go bag.