1. That looks good! I’d add a Nick Fixer from Rescue Essentials and consider that a good set.

   One of the issues that I have is getting people to actually carry their IFAK. I solved that problem for myself by having multiple kits in different locations. I have two in the truck. One with a red cross and ready to go. It is a boo-boo kit with extras. Right next to it is the IFAK with a CAT on top for easy access but no patch. Both are rip-away pouches. If you know how to use a CAT you’ll know what that black bag with a CAT really is. If you don’t, then the idiot bag is right next to it.

   My EDC bag (computer bag/brief case) has a full out IFAK. If I need to travel, it is with me.

   I have the in pocket extra small Boo-Boo kit but I really should upgrade to an ankle kit with a full blowout kit.

   My range bag has a full kit. My magazine carriers have blow out kits.

   But, the thing that gets my lady to carry her kit with her is not the blowout kit, which will save her life or the lives of others, it is the fact that her kit also has the boo-boo stuff in it. So she takes it for the neosporine and bandaids, not the TK, Israeli bandage and Celox pack.

   3

2. Ok, I only know really basic first aid, so please bear with me…. while I recognize many of those items, what is a “carbon pencil” and where is it used?

   1. There are better qualified people than me to answer this.

      This kit is a blow out kit or “Stop The Bleed” kit. If you are hit in an extremity (arm or leg) and are bleeding profusely, I.e. you are going to run out of blood shortly, you use a tourniquet to stop the flow of blood to the extremity.

      The type of tourniquet that you see here is a type of Combat Application Tourniquet (C.A.T.) There is velcro and a buckle type arrangement. You put the limb in the loop, snug it *tight* with the velcro, then turn the handle until the blood stops.

      The VERY next thing you do is write the time and date on the tourniquet. This tells the doctors how long the tourniquet has been on. The carbon pencil is just a fancy pencil that will write in the rain/blood and allow you to record time/date on the TK.

      If you have a marker, you would also write TK: Time/Date on the forehead. Writing it on the forehead tells the emergency team to actually check for the tourniquet and is back up on the timing.

      The CAT can be applied one handed and operated one handed. Mine are setup that way. If you are working in a team or there is another person that can do it, leave the loop off as it is faster and easier to get it on without the loop if you have two hands to work with.

      The Israeli bandage is another one of those modern marvels. It consists of a sterile pad attached to an ace bandage. You slap the pad over the would, wrap the compression bandage around the limb once, loop it around a “toggle” and then wrap in the opposite direction, when you come back around, you flip the toggle. Flipping the toggle puts direct pressure on the wound, then continue wrapping. A tightly applied Israeli Bandage can be used as an emergency TK. It can be used with out applying excess pressure on many other wounds, such as a gut shot.

      It doesn’t have a chest seal on it so it doesn’t work for sucking chest wounds but it does work for belly wounds.

      If you go a step further, you’d add a Hyfin Vent Chest Seal. The better trained add the nasal tubes.

      QuickClot or Celox Gauze or powders are also very very useful.

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