[Saluki2003]

I'm almost through with paramedic school and will be the lone "medical professional" in my group when the SHTF scenario arrives. We all have assigned some roles as far as stockpiling supplies and one of my roles will be assembling a medical bag and medical supplies.

This wont be used as some Ricky Rescue bag so I can do things out of my scope of practice on any emergency I come across. It would be strictly for use in emergency situations involving family and friends. So I'm wondering what you guys would recommend stockpiling? Any medics, nurses, or doctors here who have already put together a medic bag and supplies? If so please share what you have so far.

 

[Aaron Aardvark]

I am accumulating a wide variety of stuff. You primary concern in an austere environment would be infection, so topical and antibiotics would be key. If you have the info to learn ditch surgery then the equipment to do so. I have advanced airways, O2, a mess of trauma supplies (prefer the bolin chest seal to to the asherman), crapload of BSI gear, lots of disinfectants.

 

[nexusq2]

Brave of you to post this question. It shouldn't be long before the medic trolls show up to scold you for even even asking such a thing without having a medical degree.

Having said that, there is a first aid section on the forum here that has a bunch of good posts about supplies and meds to have on hand. Plus a lot of good links to online sources with good prices.

 

[prepper23]

I would be sure to have lots or gauze to begin. Both pads and rolls or all sizes. Also whatever you prefer to use to disinfect and clean. I would go with a bottle of alcohol and a bottle or two of iodine for deep cuts. Don't forget saline solution too. Then look into band aids, steri strips, and different size specialty things like eye patches or slings. Also aspirin, Tylenol, ibuprofen. This is the basic stuff I carry in my bag.

 

[Saluki2003]

Brave of you to post this question. It shouldn't be long before the medic trolls show up to scold you for even even asking such a thing without having a medical degree.

Having said that, there is a first aid section on the forum here that has a bunch of good posts about supplies and meds to have on hand. Plus a lot of good links to online sources with good prices.

Thanks for the heads up. With a paramedic license I'll be trained at things like advanced airways, emergency needle decompressions, IVs, etc and my group of prepper/survivalist friends and myself feel it would be good to have the supplies together that would allow me to use these skills in case of an emergency within our group. After school I plan on getting more training in things like suturing, and wildlife medicine that would be beneficial should our EMS system be completely overrun or useless. Again I just want to make it clear that this bag won't be in the back of my truck so I can be Ricky Rescue.

 

[Jedi Medic]

Hi ! Medic Troll here...

anyway, we've all collected stuff. medical stuff is of great importance if you're the designated "doc".

I've stressed "sick call" type supplies. minor wound care, earaches, UTIs, blister care, burn care, rashes, creeping crud like athletes foot, (all can be debilitating if left out of control) etc.

i've stocked cotton balls, silver colloidal solutions, tea-tree oil, lavender oil, suture sets and removers, and lots and lots of "disposables" that will be consumed quickly with dressing changes, etc.

Hygiene is of the utmost importance after SHTF. More have died in wars from disease than wounds, ever. water purification and food care/prep is also the medics job. prevention is better than cure. I stock cheap soap bars by the pound. shampoos by the gallon. i use only antibacterial soap for wound wash and pre-procedure wash. regular soap otherwise. alcohol, whitchhazel, peroxide by the gallon. betadine from a vet supply. calmine lotion, every type of OTC you can get ahold of. dont forget toilet paper by the case. also grooming products like nail clippers, combs, etc.

I hit the dollar stores and spend $50.00 to $100.00 every month. Think basic first aid supplies, bathroom supplies, invalid care supplies, etc.

I have a trauma bag as well that goes with me everywhere I go. except for drugs and a defibrillator I can operate to my skill level and i have cooperation from by base hospital to do so.

SHTF is another sitch alltogether. Simply put, in the absence of an ICU or life saving trauma surgery, if you're seriously hurt in SHTF, you're dead. no amount of prehospital care, drugs, edison medicine, IVs, needle thoracotomies, ETTs, etc will change anything in someone needing care past the first hour. be realistic, all of our training is suited for buying time for the injured, not fixing a damn thing.

I expect to use my trauma bag as well as my other medical supplies, post SHTF, but my expectations of evacuating a seriously injured party to a hospital are low. there will be no additional help, in my case, and people will die in heretofore preventable cases. it's simply what will happen when we revert back to the 1800s.

save who you can. prep for that. good luck with NREMT.

 

[Saluki2003]

Hi ! Medic Troll here...

anyway, we've all collected stuff. medical stuff is of great importance if you're the designated "doc".

I've stressed "sick call" type supplies. minor wound care, earaches, UTIs, blister care, burn care, rashes, creeping crud like athletes foot, (all can be debilitating if left out of control) etc.

i've stocked cotton balls, silver colloidal solutions, tea-tree oil, lavender oil, suture sets and removers, and lots and lots of "disposables" that will be consumed quickly with dressing changes, etc.

Hygiene is of the utmost importance after SHTF. More have died in wars from disease than wounds, ever. water purification and food care/prep is also the medics job. prevention is better than cure. I stock cheap soap bars by the pound. shampoos by the gallon. i use only antibacterial soap for wound wash and pre-procedure wash. regular soap otherwise. alcohol, whitchhazel, peroxide by the gallon. betadine from a vet supply. calmine lotion, every type of OTC you can get ahold of. dont forget toilet paper by the case. also grooming products like nail clippers, combs, etc.

I hit the dollar stores and spend $50.00 to $100.00 every month. Think basic first aid supplies, bathroom supplies, invalid care supplies, etc.

I have a trauma bag as well that goes with me everywhere I go. except for drugs and a defibrillator I can operate to my skill level and i have cooperation from by base hospital to do so.

SHTF is another sitch alltogether. Simply put, in the absence of an ICU or life saving trauma surgery, if you're seriously hurt in SHTF, you're dead. no amount of prehospital care, drugs, edison medicine, IVs, needle thoracotomies, ETTs, etc will change anything in someone needing care past the first hour. be realistic, all of our training is suited for buying time for the injured, not fixing a damn thing.

I expect to use my trauma bag as well as my other medical supplies, post SHTF, but my expectations of evacuating a seriously injured party to a hospital are low. there will be no additional help, in my case, and people will die in heretofore preventable cases. it's simply what will happen when we revert back to the 1800s.

save who you can. prep for that. good luck with NREMT.

Thats cool that you have your base behind you! You also bring up some really good points about the prevention part...I'll discuss this with my group of preppers. You also make a good point about how what we do in the field is to make them last long enough to get to definitive care. I guess in my mind I was just thinking about doing whatever I can in an emergency situation...It would be tough to watch someone die with a tension pneumo knowing I could do something (even if it is just in the short term) and being unable to. I hope that makes some kind of sense.

I will definitely be putting together a list of first aid/hygiene supplies that we will need to begin stockpiling. Thanks for an eye opening post!

 

[sardog]

Getting your paramedic papers is all well and good, congrats.

Start training others because if something happens to you........

 

[ilb01]

agree with above poster. train up everyone else you possibly can. a lone medic is better than no medic, but if everyone is a medic it is even better.
paramedic training is great, but relies on the idea that you had an ambulance full of stuff, and a hospital full of surgeons a short drive away. when you have no official medical support behind you for whatever reason, I would advise a slight mental shift from "paramedic" to "austere health care worker". rather than throwing et tubes and iv's into people, you will be boiling up sheets in a pressure cooker, using honey and clingfilm (saran wrap?) for burns and sugar therapy to prevent infection in wounds. at least that is the way I look at it. a guy can only stockpile an rotate so much stuff, and as much as we would love to have our own surgery in our basement, we need to draw our own lines somewhere. maybe look at taking training as a remote medical practitioner? or maybe do some medical volunteer work in some very remote areas?
I am going to totally lower the tone here. my "mad bag" has a body bag in it. why? the reality of it is, if I cannot fix a person up with what is in the bag, and I cannot get them to hospital, I will have a corpse on my hands. and one of them knocking about is a health risk. but mainly, I got it as a mental confirmation to myself that medical care is not a game. if the trolls don't go for this, I dunno what will bait em. lol. of course a large plastic bag has other uses as well.
OK, medic bag; start with the bag. make sure it is big enough to hold what you need, and that you can carry it comfortably. I also keep several different bags, for several different situations from day to day stuff, to multi-day wilderness trips, to I am on my own for the foreseeable future.
good luck getting supplied, and have fun doing it too.

 

[Medic814]

Brave of you to post this question. It shouldn't be long before the medic trolls show up to scold you for even even asking such a thing without having a medical degree.

Not going to scold you buddy. As a medic you will have access to lots of supplies and training that will be more advanced than most are able to do. I agree with our other EMS brothers mostly, still yet, I would want to know that I did all I could for someone with what I had for my own mental health. In a true emergency situation, I personally will have several bags of LR, full IV kit/ chest decompression kit, fish antibiotics (same ingredients as people antibiotics), iodine, and lots of grain alcohol since its difficult to get anesthetics... don't forget superglue

I'll have a field surgical kit soon as well so I can practice suturing. Fortunately my family will be bugging out with several other paramedics/EMTs and police so we'll have some overlapping skills in case anything happens to me.

 

[LanCo EMT]

If I can suggest one thing for you to do after attaining your paramedic certification it is to put in some time on an ambulance. Learn the skills on the streets in practical application. Learning EMS in school is one thing, putting it into practice in real life is a totally different scenario. What you learn in class and how things are actually done are two very different things. Good on you for taking the time and effort to get your cert though! Definitely an extremely valuable skill that you can have for life if you keep up on it.

With that said, I have a small bag thrown together for a SHTF scenario that includes many dressings of all sizes from 4x4 on up to 18" trauma dressings. Along with those should be lots of gauze wrap to secure the dressings to wounds and antibiotics. I do not bother with things like oral airways or combi-tubes for SHTF scenarios. If someone is in need of that type of intervention, there is just no way that the care that the Pt needs can be provided in the field. That type of injury would need a hospital's care for sure. I keep a pair of trauma shears, few pairs of medical gloves, a sterile burn sheet, occlusive dressings, along with common pain killers like aspirin, ibuprofen, ora-jel for tooth pain, etc..

 

[Jedi Medic]

OP-

Never said I WOULDN'T use my trauma bag after SHTF. I just feel it wouldn't do a whole lot of good, but I'll give it all i've got. The people i will be working on are kin. i'm not going to just watch, especially if i've got the supplies. you never know.

Lanco emt- any paramedic program worth it's salt (one that is NREMT) will require one year of field EMS work just to get in to the class, 800 hours of classroom/lab time and 200 hours of precepted clinical and vehicular ride time actually treating patients. Most classes wont take you if you don't have an employer already. just FYI.

ALSO- hesperian.org has free downloads of "where there is no doctor" and other books. It's not my favorite, but it's a start.

see also auerbach's "wilderness medical guide" it's about $200.00. it's for expedition medicine for doctors. lots of good info that will be useful in SHTF.

"Merck manual for home health care" is good.

amazon is your friend.

 

[LanCo EMT]

Lanco emt- any paramedic program worth it's salt (one that is NREMT) will require one year of field EMS work just to get in to the class, 800 hours of classroom/lab time and 200 hours of precepted clinical and vehicular ride time actually treating patients. Most classes wont take you if you don't have an employer already. just FYI.

I think that depends state by state. Here in PA, you do not need any truck time before you can enter medic school. Very foolish to do so, but you can if you'd like.

 

[Medic814]

Lanco emt- any paramedic program worth it's salt (one that is NREMT) will require one year of field EMS work just to get in to the class, 800 hours of classroom/lab time and 200 hours of precepted clinical and vehicular ride time actually treating patients. Most classes wont take you if you don't have an employer already. just FYI.

You don't have to in KY either. I got my degree in paramedicine from Eastern Kentucky University and didn't work in my field full time until i was close to finishing up and taking my NREMT-P.

And just to clarify, I didn't mean to imply that any medic on this thread would deny or withhold tx even in a SHTF situation, just that I want the highest level of care in my possession in case its not a defcon 1 kind of disaster. I think all of us that have worked mass casualty incidents (esp natural disasters since you get a variety of ages and demographics) would agree that triage sucks... nobody wants to black tag somebody and it haunts you later to know you didn't try something that might have worked.

 

[penny'sdad]

Get lots of trauma pads, cravats, sam splint, and self adherant wrap. I like the military type trauma bandages too. There is a huge difference between "first response" type care and definitive care. Get yourself prepared for the latter as you learn more about the former. Good luck. Lots of supplies and equipment need to be laid up for the role you have. See if you can delegate some of the purchasing to others so you don't have to pay for all of it as well.

 

[DOC_Lidocane]

One thing that you might want to stock up on is Hibiclens. You probably won't put this in your bag, but if you are making a stockpile you probably want to throw a couple gallons in there. Google shopping says "Indicated For Use As A Surgical Scrub, A Patient Pre-Operative Skin Preparation, A Healthcare Personnel Hand Wash and As A Skin Wound and General Skin Cleaner." I use it in the ER immediatly prior to suturing, and to clean up all kinds of scrapes. I'll irrigate with a liter of saline or sterile water, and then just dab a bit of hibilens on a piece of gauze and scrub. You might also use it for daily wound clensing post SHTF. A gallon or two will last you a long time.

 

[Saluki2003]

Could you guys that have put together a medic bag post up pics of what you've put together?

Also I'm interested in hearing about what and how much medical supplies you guys have stockpiled.

 

[Jedi Medic]

And just to clarify, I didn't mean to imply that any medic on this thread would deny or withhold tx even in a SHTF situation, just that I want the highest level of care in my possession in case its not a defcon 1 kind of disaster.

I figured that. a lot of people on these boards make the assumption that all this stuff and training is for TEOTWAWKI. I disagree. Everyday could be YOUR teotwawki event. sick family, car wreck, etc. Hopefully not, but I always have my EDC knife, wallet, gun ensemble on me "just because" you never know.

The same is true for my jump bag. it might be for me and mine, it might be for a total stranger in an incident that has nothing to do with the end-of-the-world.

all the cool gear in the world is no good if it's somewhere you aren't.

TEOTWAWKI medical supplies are in the pantry. jumpbag in the car. both will be used when and where they are needed most.

as far as medical issues go. i am ready for anything within my skill level. now or after SHTF

 

[scon86]

hey guys, just wanted to add my 2 cents in.... I'm a medic in the NYC 911 system and have quite the stock pile in my apartment, mostly trauma supplies including iv start kits with many liters of 0.9% normal saline (ny no longer uses lactated ringers). I also have lots of bandaging supplies, and even found an intubation kit online for $100 from narescue.com I also stocked up on lots of different text books and I thinks its important for any medic to take so classes like PHTLS (pre hospital trauma life support) AMLS (advanced medical life support) TCCC (tactical combat casualty care) and if you have any kids in your group PEPP (Pediatric Education for Prehospital Professionals) training is just as important as equipment

Good luck in class

 

[strvger]

lucky for me, most of my initial training came via the army. i was even lucky enough to do 'dust off' for a couple of years. i was taught and performed suturing, some surgical procedures, acute minor illness diagnosis and treatment, etc.
those are some of the things you don't get in civilian schools. best advice i can give is to research all you can and if possible, observe some minor surgical procedures as you make friends with health care professionals. the more you learn, the more capable you will be and the better you will be able to improvise in any given situation.