Prudent Prepping: Second Aid

The dust has settled and the First 72 Hours have passed. Follow along as I build a long term plan via Prudent Prepping. 

I had an opportunity to use some of my gear Monday. While it may have been not necessarily needed, I was glad to have it available and ready to use. Why am I calling it Second Aid? I was there after the accident and not the first to help. 

I was at work when, several aisles away, there was a bit of a commotion and loud swearing. This is not that uncommon in a Big Box store, except this voice was a woman and someone I recognized. I didn't hear boxes being dropped, crashing bath fixtures or lumber cascading off racking, so I went to see what was going on. Evidently her utility knife slipped while cutting the plastic banding on a box, and she cut herself on the back of her hand in the fatty area between thumb and forefinger. 

https://tinyurl.com/4bnkbvs2

As anyone who has worked in retail in the past 20 years knows, large corporations issue the wimpiest cutting tools that only allow 1/4" of a rounded point blade to be exposed. We use tools similar to this knife from Stanley Tools. With automatic retraction, it's supposed to be very difficult to cut yourself. Note: very difficult, but not impossible, making my friend extremely unlucky to have managed to cut herself!

As I came around the corner I saw that someone else was applying direct pressure to the cut with a towel and trying to get my friend to sit down and stop jumping up and down. She seemed to be bleeding more than a little, so I asked the first person there to lift the rag a bit to see how big the cut was. I saw a wound about 3/4" long, with blood oozing out but not pulsing. That made me (at least) feel better about what happened, even if it was painful for my friend. 

I have a Quik Clot sponge in my first aid pouch. I opened it, had my friend put it on the cut under the rag, and continued putting pressure on the wound. This was probably overkill, but it made her calm down when the bleeding stopped. By this time there was quite a crowd, and then Management showed up to supervise. When the amount of blood which had soaked through the rag was seen, the decision to go to Urgent Care was made. 

One hour later, my friend came back with a stretchy bandage wrapped on her hand. She thanked me and my coworker for getting things under control, then told me that the doctor asked her if Quik Clot was part of our store first aid supplies and was surprised to hear it came out of an employee's gear. 

I seem to be treating a lot  of cuts lately, and this was another case where I was glad to have gear to help in an emergency.

Recap And Takeaway

• Having even a small First Aid kit right at hand is better than no kit at all, or a big kit far away.
• Nothing was purchased this week, but the Quik Clot I used has been replaced with a spare. I seem to be using up my available supply pretty fast, so several more will be ordered soon. 

* * *

Just a reminder: if you plan on buying anything through Amazon, please consider using our referral link. When you do, a portion of the sale comes back here to help keep this site running!

If you have comments, suggestions or corrections, please post them so we all can learn. And remember, Some Is Always Better Than None!

NOTE: All items tested were purchased by me. No products have been loaned in exchange for a favorable review. Any items sent to me for T&E will be listed as such. Suck it Feds.