Knowing what trauma kit to carry goes a long way in ensuring survival when a bullet finds its way to your body. It would be wrong not to have a trauma kit in place just if you got shot as we speak.
Stats say 6 out of 7 victims of handguns survive in America, proving that a gunshot wound is not necessarily death. In fact, the outcome of a gunshot wound or any equally severe trauma depends on the speed and quality of healthcare.
There are five main functions of gunshot wound trauma kits: keeping the victim breathing, controlling hemorrhage, preventing shock, maintaining an airway, and protecting caregivers. Obviously, these are all critical and mandatory.
The rule of thumb is to carry a trauma kit every time you carry a firearm.
Is There a Specific Type of Trauma Kit to Carry?
Honestly speaking, no. There isn’t a particular type of trauma kit that you should carry only. As a survivalist, you should have various types and sizes of survival trauma kits, so you’re not deprived of crucial resources when and where needed.
Mini EDC Trauma Kit
A mini EDC trauma kit is far from ideal for treating a gunshot wound, but better little than nothing at all. This kit is typically little, as the name suggests, so all you can find in it are the very basics. In fact, I have attended to a gunshot wound with only a mini EDC kit, but I must point out that the injury was not extreme. I successfully improvised in this case, but it really could have been much more terrible.
Your mini EDC trauma kit should contain a combat gauze, tourniquet, petrolatum gauze, primed gauze, medical duct tape, fentanyl tablets, wipes, and a bag. You have to include simple instructions for treating severe bleeding on the kit itself. This is because you may be the victim, and someone would have to handle your emergency treatment. Severe bleeding is the primary reason for preventable death among gunshot victims. You can wrap your kit in customized wraps like OneWrap and wear in your pocket or purse.
Overt Carry Trauma Kit
An overt carry trauma kit is what you carry when you are not making an effort to conceal your supplies. They are the kits you’ve seen with survivalists and military personnel on their load carriers. This is the kit to carry when there’s over 50% possibility of getting shot. If you are going out in a group but are not sure if you’ll all be sticking together, everyone should come with their kit, so there’s no danger of running out of resources to treat yourself.
Mass Casualty Kit
I suppose the name already gives a clear understanding of what this is. A mass casualty kit is what you use to attend to the victims of a mass casualty incident. This kit type is a larger bag that contains smaller throw kits that you can distribute to whoever needs them. These kits are moved with vehicles and stored in designated sites.
Vehicle Trauma Kit
A vehicle is larger and makes it easier to carry a larger trauma kit. This is the type of kit to carry on your car camping trip.
Medical Specialty Kits
These kits are best for medical professionals or persons who have advanced medical training. They have to contain the equipment needed to provide sufficient care for others. If you belong to a Mutual Assistance Group (MAG), there’s a high chance that you have this kit if you have specialized medical training. A medical specialty kit is not designed for small issues but for roles line Combat Medic, Combat Lifesaver, WEMT, or EMT. You can store medical specialty kids in fixed sites but in a way that they can be moved quickly whenever you have to bug out. They are, however, beyond the scope of this piece and will not be emphasized further.
Components of Survival Trauma Kits
These are contents to include when preparing your survival trauma kit if you’d rather do so and not buy a prepackaged product. Trauma kit components also include a pouch to carry the kit in, so we’ll start with that.
Pouches to Carry Your Trauma Kit In
A simple pouch does it for small EDC kits, but when you’re overt carrying, you need a larger bag, and for this purpose, I’d advise a flat pouch instead of a boxy pouch. This is because the latter tends to snag and can be inconvenient if you lay on them due to circumstances that require you to seek cover. A flat pouch is much easier to carry in other bags. You should go for one with a detachable insert.
Tourniquet
There are various choices of tourniquets for the survivalists. Most of these accounts for a particular niche, with weight and size constraints often helping to determine what’s best to carry. Specifically designed tourniquets are easier and more effective to apply for poorly trained or untrained persons than improvised tourniquets.
Decide on the tourniquet to carry early on and train yourself and everyone around you to use it. This includes members of your family and every MAG you belong to. CAT, RATs, TK-4, and SWAT-T are models of tourniquets to choose from.
Trauma Bandage
Trauma bandages are much more effective than the ordinary bandages you’re more familiar with. They do best for treating trauma wounds. I’ve tried a number of these and can confidently recommend two very effective brands: OLAES Modular and Israeli Dressing. When shopping for these bandages, select one with a compression that helps keep pressure on the wound.
Chest Seal
The chest seal is used for injuries that penetrate the chest, which is likely to fill the pleural space around the lungs with liquid and may lead to a collapsed lung. To prevent this, the chest seal seals the hole with a barrier that liquid can’t pass through. In the absence of this, you can use gauze containing petroleum jelly. It is more affordable and occupies less space. However, a chest seal is often easier to apply in an emergency.
Concluding What Trauma Kit to Carry
Figuring out what trauma kit to carry is an important step in your survivalist endeavors. And this is just fancy English. What I mean is, the right trauma kit is crucial to survive a trauma wound. It is equally relevant to know the items to carry in these kits, which the latter part of our article discusses. Find out more about the items to carry in a trauma kit in our follow-up