Emergency First Aid Kits

We lived in urban settings within a 10 minute drive of a hospital at most.  On the home front for the most part any emergency health care was as close of wrap it in a towel and go to the hospital.  Except we had young kids at home, we had a pool and we did a lot of camping where a hospital was well over a 10 minute drive.  Compounding that both of us were on the road daily in my case a rather long commute.  It was obvious to us that we needed emergency first aid kits for home, both vehicles and the RV then later even more important with the boat.

By far the easiest way to do this is to buy a pre-assembled emergency first aid kit.  These are available in any drug store ranging in price from a few dollars to about $40.  Once purchased supplies need to be replenished as they are used.  First Aid kits really need to be tailored to the use as well.  For example it was very important for us to include Benedryl in our camping first aid kit because there was a high probability of coming into contact with poison oak, poison ivy or poison summac.  At home is the urban setting this was not as much of a concern but when we moved to a rural setting it was once again a concern.  At home we tend to stock extras like grain packs that can be used as both heating and icing packs, ice packs, crutches, tension bandages and extra medications. I will note that medications are not a strong part of any of our emergency kits especially pain medications.   Emergency kits used in the vehicles and boat are well stocked with splints, slings and other ways to immobilize an injury.  On the boat our number one main concern is to make sure any emergency supplies including the emergency first aid kit is waterproof. 

Communication is a very important part of any first aid kit.  It is essential to have some type of signalling device as part of a first aid kit.  This can range from flares to a flashlight to a mirror to flash light from the sun to get attention.  At home we have a land line and cell phones along with close neighbours and easy transportation to emergency facilities if need be.  On the road we have two cell phone, flares, GPS and on our main travel vehicle OnStar.  On the boat we have two cell phones, marine radio, flashlight, flares and manual signalling capability.  We both have CPR, First Aid Certification and WHIMS Certification so that helps which brings me to another discussion for tomorrow.

Garden Gnome