As a professional fire fighter / First Aid Instructor and experienced Outdoor Instructor with over 35 years in the New Zealand bush, on rivers and lakes, travelling throughout the world and wintering over at Scott Base Antarctica I have a good working knowledge of ‘practical’ First Aid.
Personally I carry 3 First Aid Kits they are all small and laid out in a very logical order of what you are most likely to need first.
KIT ONE – TRAUMA
This is to keep you alive
- Surgical gloves
- Tourniquet
- Large Field Dressing X2
- Large sterile pad
- Large (10cm) Bandage X2
- Set of ‘OP’ Airways
- Pulse Oximeter
This kit is always close at hand in the top pocket of my pack. There are no sharps so it can travel in my carry on
KIT TWO – FIRST AID
This is to keep you comfortable
- Plasters & Dressings
- Blister kit
- Waterproof tape
- 5cm bandages x2
- Sissors/tweezers
- Splinter Probes
- Antihistamines
- General purpose creams
- Paracetamol/Tylenol
- K Tape
This kit is never too far from the top of my pack, inside my waterproof liner. This also has our multi-tool in it which is 260g on its own (over 1/4 of the total weight).
KIT THREE – FAMILY MED KIT
Coughs, colds and medicines
- Antibiotics
- Antihistamine Tabs
- Anti malaria tabs
- Water purification tabs
- Medications
This kit can be stowed anywhere within our luggage
For very remote areas I also carry a small Surgical Instrument Set. This contains sterilised surgical instruments that I can be 100% certain of their cleanliness (These are included in my kits and the weights shown).
- Sutures
- Scalpel
- Clamp
- Surgical scissors
- Syringe and hypodermic needles.
Be careful with packing these items as they must be contained in your checked in luggage – mine are double wrapped and clearly labeled.
Many would say this is overkill – and to some extent I agree – most things in the kits can be improvised, but let’s break it down. Everything in the medication kit has to go. Just the way it is with older travellers/kids and travelling in out of the way places. So I have just packed it all together and uploaded a scan of all the prescriptions to Google Drive and made the documents available offline.
The Trauma kit may never get opened – but if it does I know exactly what is in it and exactly what I can do with it – This is literally to keep someone alive until higher medical care can a attend to the patient.
The Family First Aid Kit is just for everyday bumps and bruises. I have over stocked it so we shouldn’t need to buy anything while we anre away. It will be interesting to see what it weighs when we get home. I will also update this page if I decide to dump anything on our travels.