MEDICAL
One of the really tough things about disasters is that medical emergencies tend to mushroom instantly. At the same time there are not enough doctors, nurses and supplies to meet every emergency demand and people ALWAYS to fall through the cracks due to unforeseen circumstances and the overwheming number of people that need treatment at once. Also during disasters there is always a good chance that emergency vehicles are not running or you may be stranded in a situation where it may be impossible for you to get to professional services or even to place a phone call. So what do you do then?
When we build our country home 25 miles for the nearest town and 35 miles from the nearest hospital it never dawned on me what a liability that would be for a medical emergency. It means that the closest medical help is 35 minutes away. When a person is having a medical emergency that time frame is deadly. A person not breathing or without a heart beat can only last 5 minutes without brain damage, a badly cut person can bleed out in 10 to 15 minutes. Understanding this, has made me look at other ways to increase our survival chances should a medical emergency crop up.
Since my mother was an RN and she gave me a LOT of training over the years, plus I have taken several courses on first aid and I have also taken several courses in herbology. Also I was raised on farm where most emergencies for both people and animals were handled on our own. So I came up with plan to increase our chances of survival with some simple things that everyone can duplicate.
WHERE ARE YOUR MEDICAL SUPPLIES KEPT?
If you are like most people, you may say that all your medical supplies are kept in the bathroom medicine cabinet. Some people keep medical supplies in the kitchen - which is better but not ideal. In my lifetime, we have NEVER had a medical emergency in the bathroom - ever. We have had 2 minor emergencies in the kitchen all the rest were OUTSIDE. The problem with storing medical supplies in a stationary fixed location is that if you have a major emergency you are either going to have to bring the person to the bathroom or kitchen to treat them or you will have to make several trips back and forth the get the supplies you need to tide them over until you can get them to medical care. When you have a medical emergency, second counts and delay can be deadly. So what is the solution?
Medical professional have had the solution for this for over 200 years - many carry an emergency medical bag. My mother, being and RN, always carried an emergency medical bag in her car. I took her advice and set up a medical bag of my own and it is our "medicine cabinet" and emergency kit all in one. It has saved not only human lives at my house but animal lives as well. This portable grab-and-go bag is priceless in an emergency when seconds count. When things come up at my house, I grab it and go TO THEM. Everything I need to stabilize a person is in my medical box - so there is no digging or hunting for things when someone is having a medical emergency. So here is how I set up my emergency "medicine cabinet."
WHERE TO GET A BAG OR BOX
When selecting a container for your medicine cabinet, keep the size of your family in mind. I have a large family and quite a few pets, so my box is extra large. I found the best container for my emergency kit to be a fishing tackle box. You can pick one of these up at the local department store (in the sporting goods section) and they are fairly cheap. They are also rugged, have a lot of wonderful compartments, drawers, and slots to put things into them in a well organized way. This is important as you want to be able to grab things at a glance - NOT dig for them. Another great thing about fishing tackle box is that they all come with nice rugged handles and they are easy to carry. Perfect for what we are looking for here. Also if you need to leave in a hurry, you can just grab this throw in the car and go. How great is that?
WHAT TO INCLUDE
Once you buy the appropriate sized tackle box for your kit you can begin stocking it. The first thing you need to buy to go in it is an easy to use book on emergency first aide. There are a lot of great books out there that are easy to use with thumb tabs or data tabs so you can flip to the data you need fast. Fast reference is the key. The one I have is called: Emergency Medical Treatment, it is a small spiral bound book that lays flat and has thumb tabs that takes you instantly to what you are handling. You don't want to be thumbing through Gray's Anatomy while someone is bleeding out in front of you. You need to know what to do FAST. So buy one of these books that has first aide in simple to read words and illustrations - without a lot of medical patter - indexed or tabbed if you can find that. Once you get this book READ IT cover to cover. The BEST place for emergency medical help is by already having it in your head. When an emergency comes up, you may not remember all the steps - but it will flow back to you when you glance at the steps in the book. Or you might want to take an emergency first aid course and CPR course at your local college or high school or health department. Check for classes in your area.
When buying items for your kit try to cover the basic kinds of emergencies and then add in specialty things that may be special for your family. If you are stocking up for a long term disaster - like I do here for hurricane season, then you may want to add other specialty things so you can treat things if professional medical help is not possible at all. If you want to stock your kit for a long term disaster I have included a few things in blue print that you may want to add. Otherwise, you might want to leave these things off or add them slowly as you can afford. Also make sure you buy things that don't require batteries or electric power - both may be lost to you in an emergency.
Once you get your box, start adding to it a little at a time. Keep in mind with the list below that I have been adding to my kit for many years...
EQUIPMENT
There are a few things you may want to add to your kit that may prove very helpful in an emergency. Most of the following things are available at your local drug store.
A Stethoscope (to listen to a heart beat, lungs or for other things inside the body)
A Small flash light (to help see things in a throat, ears or in wounds)
A manual blood pressure cuff
An eye rinsing cup
Ear Irrigation bulb
Nose aspiration bulb
Two or three thermometers (the kind that works without batteries)
A watch with a second hand (The wind-up kind is best - if you can find one- like a pocket watch)
Ice pack with screw on lid
Hot water bottle
A microscope
TOOLS
Scissors (get 3 or 4 pair of different sizes, long, short, small and large heavy duty - all metal)
Tweezers - several sizes (get long handled and short and small - all metal so they can be boiled and sterilized - stainless steel is best)
Spoons (Small & medium - stainless steel)
Two pairs of pliers (medium and small)
An exacto blade kit with several blade types - all stainless steel
Packages of safety razor blades
3 or 4 truncates (or a rubberize lengths of hosing)
3 or 4 packages of sewing needles (curved and flat)
Strong magnifying glass (free standing if you can find one)
1 pair of safety goggles
A small mirror
Small plastic squeeze bottles and spray bottles
Kelly's (or forceps) surgical champs (short, long, curved and straight)
EMERGENCY KITS
Tooth ache kit
Tooth repair kit
Ear Wax removal kit
Snake bite kit
Eye washing kit
Birthing kit
Lice Treatment kit
Bee Sting Injection kit with anti venom
DISPOSABLE GOODS
Sterile gauze rolls & squares in small medium and large sizes
Sterile cotton balls
Sterile cotton pads
Q-Tip Swaps
Sterile Alcohol swaps (single wrapped)
Surgical tape, paper tape, plastic tape
Flexible Sticks-to-itself bandage rolls
Rolls of string - fine and heavy duty
Small bag of pop cycle sticks
Sterile wound dressings (small, medium and large)
2 boxes of band aids (all sizes)
Box of butterfly strips
Box of sterile rubber gloves
Ace bandages (several sizes)
Clean cloth strips cut into long lengths and rolled
A small fat notebook
Pencils and a small sharpener
Rubber bands
Safety pins
Needle-less syringes
A couple of candles and a lighter
Sterile shot needles (optional)
WOUND DRESSING SUPPLIES
Alcohol (clearly labeled in a flip top squirt bottle)
3% hydrogen peroxide (clearly labeled in a flip top squirt bottle and in a spray bottle) (I keep a CASE of this on hand at all times)
Beta dine or iodine tincture solution
Antibiotic ointment and cream
Aloe numbing lotion
20% benocaine tooth ache numbing liquid and jell
Sterile sutures kits with needle and thread
Bottle of Gingin Violet
1 tin of hard packed tobacco (to draw out insect venom)
1 tin of drawing salve
Small bottle of olive oil
Small bottle of clove oil
Small bottle lavender oil (NOT lavender scented oil) (for small burns)
Pure Aloe jell (for sunburns)
Vaseline or unpetrolium jelly
Bottle of anti fungal soap
Antibacterial scrubbing soap liquid and a medium-hard hand scrubbing brush
Small bottle of honey
Small jar of peanut butter
Candy bars
OVER THE COUNTER MEDICINES
Plain aspirin
Feverfew herb
Tylenol
Ibuprofen
Tagamet (slows down internal bleeding)
Anti acid tablets
Cough syrup and or drops
Numbing sore throat spray and or drops
Cold tablets
Benadryl
Yeast infection medications
Epic ac or lobelia tincture (induces vomiting)
Cayanne pepper power and tincture
Any other over the counter medicines your family uses and lay in a supply of prescription med's (check expirations dates often)
IF YOU HAVE PETS
Eye ointment
Healing salve or wound dressing salve
Any prescriptions they may be on
ARRANGING YOUR KIT
Life threatening emergencies usually fall into 5 basic categories, Breathing, Heart, Bleeding, Broken bones and others - like a brith or a disease crisis. With the first three, Breathing, Heart and major bleeding you have less than 5 minutes to get these things working or back under control before transition (death) occurs. When you arrange your medical emergency kit you need to lay it out in a way that will allow you to have instant access to what you need at a glance. You will NOT have time to dig - so laying things out in your kit according to the emergency TYPE. This is not only just plain smart it could save a life when seconds count.
Breathing & Heart
Knowing CPR may save a life - all you need for that is your hands and mouth and a knowing how - but other things can help until you can get them to professional help. In arranging your kit, put your stethoscope and watch on top, then add in other things like aspirin, cayenne tincture, lobelia tincture or nitro glycerin tabs. All these things need to be at your finger tips - in one place - if you have an emergency with breathing or heart. Also if you a helping out a stranger - be sure to get a name, age, family names, address and phone numbers and what they are allergic to - if anything. This information will be very valuable to medical professionals if the person experianing the emergency passes out before help gets there. So keep your pencil and note book on top too.
Wounds
Wounds constitutes the better part of emergencies. So your next kit section should be laid out to handle that until you can get them to professional help. In this section put in all the supplies you need to handle a deep wound to get the bleeding stopped. Include a tunicate, clean gauze, and anything else associated with deep bleeding. Follow your Emergency First Aid book for step by step directions.
Broken Bones
Broken, cracked or chipped bones are really hard to guess about without an X-ray. In an emergency the best you can do is immobilize the bone as best you can and get them to professional help. So the next part of the kit needs to set up so you have the supplies you need to get a bone stable until you can find professional help.
Minor Emergencies
Other things that go wrong with us goes in the minor emergencies category. This may include tooth aches, indigestion, cramps, the flu and such. With these things your kit can act like a regular medicine chest and you can use over the counter med's to treat these minor things.
Once you have your kit pretty well set up, store it in a location where everyone in the house will know where it's at. This is important as in an emergency you can send someone to get it your kit and have everything you need in one spot - which is totally portable.
FOR POSSIBLE EXTENDED DISASTERS
Strong brandy or Ever Clear
Vodka - to tincture your own herbs
Case of hydrogen peroxide
Have all prescriptions filled and an emergency supply put in your kit
RECOMMENDED BOOK & PROGRAMS
Emergency Medical Treatment, by Stephen Vogel, MD and David Manhoff
Let Play Doctor, Joel D. Wallach, MD and Ma Lan, MD (A fantastic reference for understanding baseline body norms, understanding test results and treating common ills)
Back To Eden, Jethro Kloss, (Herbal reference book for understanding specific herbs - what they look like, their properties, how to prepare them, and techniques of how to treat with them)
Taber's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary, (Illustrated version) (Reference book for understanding how the body and it's parts work, symptoms and diseases)
The Incurables Programs, by Dr. Richard Shultze (Audio and Video Programs) (How to cure serious diseases with herbs you make yourself - step by step) http://curezone.com/schulze/handbook/TNIP.asp
Touch Healing for Plants, Animals and People, by Debbora Wiles (Step by step system for healing with energy and touch) http://www.psychicschoolhouse.com/Read%20Touch%20Healing.htm
Return to: 2012