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This survival-medicine website provides general information, not individual advice. Most scenarios assume the victim cannot get expert medical help. Please see the disclaimer.

The Survival Doctor’s First-Aid Kit and Beyond

by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.

What items would I suggest for a first-aid kit? I get that question a lot. Well, first, it depends on a lot of things.

  1. Is this for home storage or for on the go? If on the go, the items need to be lightweight. It’s great if one thing can be used for multiple purposes. Breakage and leakage becomes an issue.
  2. How many are you packing for? You, your family? Do you expect to be treating others?
  3. What’s your expertise? IV supplies are bulky. If you haven’t ever started an IV, they’re pretty useless to you as well.
  4. And, of course, everyone has different needs. I’m pretty blind without my glasses, so I better pack an extra pair. Don’t go off and leave your prescription medicines. Store them in an easy-to-locate space, safe from water spillage and extremes in temperature. If you’re prone to indigestion, pack extra antacids. If you’re allergic to bees be sure to have an EpiPen handy. You get the idea.

Learn the best ways to use your supplies—and makeshift substitutes—in The Survival Doctor e-books!

For specifics, I’ve started a page of general medical supplies I’d suggest you carry. In a disaster, you may not be able to get home. Have a small bag in your car and at work. Also, you’re going to need a lot more supplies than just medical, so for travel, I start with a small, light bag of essentials. The bigger the space you have, the more suggestions I make.

After you’ve looked over the page, would you please come back here for comments and suggestions? The list is an ongoing project and may change as I get other ideas.

 

Photo by Marshall Segal on Flickr.

September 6th, 2012 | Tags: | Category: General
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  • http://www.facebook.com/trent.puckett.1 Trent Puckett

    Great blog, great posts and great responses! From a retired Army Medic point of view, the one thing I add to the above list in all of my bags is a kit to treat life threatening allergic reactions. Although uncommon, I’ve seen a couple of these both in the field and in the ER. I saw where someone recommended having an Epi-Pen, but I don’t like these – as they are expensive and have a relatively short shelf life. I like the standard Ana-Kit, with a prefilled multidose syringe of epinephrine and an oral antihistamine – I’ve seen both diphenhydramine and chlorpheniramine in the Ana-Kits I was responsible for issuing to my Soldiers with allergies. Learning to use these and to teach non-medical people to use these is pretty straightforward. And to my own medic bag I add additional injectable epinephrine, injectable diphenhydramine, and supplies for an emergency surgical airway – for both needle and surgical cricothyrotomies. Again, awesome site, Dr. Hubbard – I look forward to reading and contributing here!

  • sassy

    I have used Ivermectin in regular lotion to put on itchy ? scabies or something and it worked well.

    • http://thesurvivaldoctor.com/ James Hubbard, MD, MPH

      Thanks, Sassy.

  • Liadan

    How do you get extra medications, such as antibiotics, pain killers, etc? Doctors and pharmacies don’t out extras, and insurance doesn’t pay for it. How long will these last and still be effective? How are they stored to keep?

    • Harri

      Feed stores often sell them for animal use. Most common is FishMox (amoxi for fish); read the unit measure and do math for human dosages.

    • http://www.thesurvivaldoctor.com James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.

      Liadan,

      You can ask your doctor for a refill, or a little extra, and save it, or you could go the fish antibiotic route.

  • renee

    we also keep bendydrl and generic allegra in our kit

  • renee

    we also keep benydrl, and generic allegra in our kit

    • http://www.thesurvivaldoctor.com James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.

      Renee, good ideas. Thanks.

  • C.O.W. (crazy old woman)

    A great list of things to have, which most of, luckily I have on hand already. My oldest brother had a TPN line to be fed when he became ill, he passed recently. I still have a lot of his medical supplies. Tubing, single sterilized small gauge needles individually wrapped, plus the empty sterile syringes. I have half a case of alcohol wipes, 2 full boxes of saline solution in the syringes for irrigation, plus numerous boxes of odds and ends. I kept them all for some reason and now I am happy I did. Ive also set up three what I call road bags. Small black backpacks with everything medical I could including some of the needles, syringes, and saline solution syringes. Is this a good idea or did I save them for nothing?

    • http://www.thesurvivaldoctor.com James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.

      C.O.W., Sure I’d save them. You never can tell when you might need them.

  • Gas Girl

    First of all, these are fabulous suggestions! I am always looking for things to add to my “no-longer-fits-in-a-backpack” medical kit, useful with hard headed family members who refuse to go to the doctor!

    Some things I would add:
    Saline solution for contacts – wound and opthalmic irrigation.
    Bubble wrap – works beautifully for splinting small joints/joints on small people and animals
    Glucometer and supplies
    Urinalysis strips – SO many clues from this!
    Luer lock syringes with varying needle sizes – multiple uses.
    Large alcohol wipes – not the pads, but the wipes, available in most drug stores. About the size of a wet wipe, and I used mine last week to clean gravel and grass from a skinned knee before irrigation.

    Thank you so much for helping us think ahead and be ready!

    • http://www.thesurvivaldoctor.com James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.

      Thanks, Gas Girl.

  • nursemike

    My dad was a veterinarian: in the fifties, he made his own iv fluids in a saucepan on the stove, using resterilized tubing and 12 ga hypodermic needles to treat cows with tetany. Ether anesthesia, too. never got to use this in my er nursing career, but seems adaptable to last resort medical situations-thoughts?

    • http://www.thesurvivaldoctor.com James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.

      Interesting, Mike. Maybe in a worst case, otherwise lose a life scenario.

  • sethb

    So i am not really gonna add items to the kits, because i think just about everything major has been hit and all that is left is preferance items. What i will say though, is that there is never a good time to be without the kit. You can have a kit at home, in the car, and at work, but are those the only places you ever go? What heppens when you are driving to some place, the car breaks down, and little timmy trips during the walk to a gas station? you can carry him back to the car, to the gas station, or see how good he has gotten at hopping (last one not taught in most parenting classes). I like to take a decent backpack with me everywhere. some times it stays in the car, but if i have to leave the car and i want a kit with me, it’s easy to take.

    Besides all that, it makes it easier and cheaper than having one for the car, home and work. Make and awesome one for the house and then make a pretty good one into a backpack. I call it my “get back home/ can’t get home” bag.

    I add in some of the common survival bits like fire tools, compass, local maps, gps, 2-way radios, flashlights/ chemlights, spare batteries, etc… you get the idea.

    And so people don’t think your crazy (even though they are the ones who think nothing bad every happens….)you can leave just enough room to throw in your work lunch, a text book for students, etc… and then it is just your bag. Not some “crazy survivalist, zombie killing thing”

    It also becomes fun to compete with friends and family to see who can fit the most stuff into the same sized bag, or to see who can have to widest variety of uses with the least amount of weight in the bag. have fun with it.

  • Mary

    Something I would like to add is medical grade sterilized honey. I use medihoney. For centuries people have used honey as a remedy for burns and wounds. I had surgery recently and was left with a large deep open wound that wouldn’t heal. After numerous prescription things, nothing was working so I started researching. I found out that distiller white vinegar and the medical grade honey were the best thing for it. I started using them twice a day, wash the wound with the vinegar and them smooth on the honey, left it covered until next cleaning. I kid you not when I tell you a wound that I could fit my entire finger into up to the first knuckle, was totally healed in two weeks. Prior to that, it had been open for a month with little to no improvement. It works wonders and doesn’t have to be kept at any certain temp so it is really good to include I a survival kit!!

    • http://www.thesurvivaldoctor.com James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.

      Thanks, Mary. I agree, and I do suggest Medihoney in the post.

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