First aid kit

Arminius

Arminius

Well-Known Member
Oct 30, 2019
1,068
Seattle
Boat Info
Bowrider 200 Select, 2003
Engines
5.0L MPI, 260 hp w/Alpha 1 Drive
Sole likely use in the unforeseeable but distant future is to keep blood off your boat and in the victim. Should contain band-aids, gauze pads, rolled Ace bandage, clean wash cloth double sealed in a baggie and stainless steel Swiss Army knife (with tweezers). I've had a few lacerations this year and the problem presented is getting on with the job without dripping all over place. Various first aid courses have emphasized examining the victim for bleeding wounds which are to be addressed with gauze pads and pressure. Everything that can dry up, spoil, rust, or rot will have done so by the time you open the kit again. In "Master and Commander", Dr. Maturin used a hole saw to relieve the cerebral pressure caused by a depressed skull fracture but that was aboard a really slow sailing boat while you have a motor, a radio, and a planing hull so you can unload the unfortunate trauma victim and go back to having fun. Call the Coast Guard if it is a dive accident so the diver can be quickly transported to a hyperbaric chamber. But mainly, have lots of bandaids and clean up the blood before it dries. No iodine as it is bound to be spilled and stains worse than blood.
 
This is a repost of a post of mine from 2014 with an updated link.

What do you have for a first aid kit to save your life? Save your broken or damaged apendage? Save your boating day?

Hopefully, you are not saying "my cell phone", relying on a $20 big box store first aid kit, or a 10 year old dried out formely water soaked first aid kit.

Boating is one of the most dangerious activities one can partake in and it is also one of the least accessable to first responders. (Particulaly for coastal boaters.) Than means you better be self sufficient. I have no idea how I might use a scalpel but the ER Doc on the VHF may be able to tell me. Think of all the danger on your vessel. The number one is falls and the resulting broken bones. How will you stabilize a broken arm? I have a small assortment of casts for that. What about burns? I have moleskin for that.

Think of all the danger onboard. The falls already mentioned, chemical burns, fire or hot surface burns, cuts from loss of limb to a paper cut, insects stings and bites, heat stroke, and we have not even touched on human sickness. Dramamine has saved a boating day for us more than once when a guest had an upset stomach.


I used a Zee Medical "First Responder Kit" as my base and added the everyday type things to it as well as a few major items not in the kit such as scalpel, casts and moleskin.

https://zeemedicalnc.com/first-responder-kit/

I have discovered that it is a great learning experience to review what exactly is in the first aid kit and build my own list to acquire for my needs. Most of the super expensive kits have an inventory list, it is a great cheat sheet to help you figure out what you need. There is no one size fits all, a CC day boat will have different needs than a cruiser that likely already has the basic necessities like aspirin.



So check that kit before you launch and make sure it is the kit you want when all hell breaks loose and stop being a cheap azz...

(I have often asked dock mates what they carry for first aid so I know what you likely have)
 
I've been boating for 50 years, never needed any more than a roll of paper towels. Then again my name isn't Dexter.
 
scoflaw said:
I've been boating for 50 years, never needed any more than a roll of paper towels. Then again my name isn't Dexter.
Click to expand...

You must not boat with many other people.

It’s easy to handle yourself but when you put kids and drunk adults in the mix shit happens.

I see folks get injured all the time around my area.

I had a friend on the swim platform when a large cruiser waked us from about 10 feet away. He was tossed off the back and severely injured his leg on a transom mount transducer. He had a giant gash that required a hospitalization. I was prepared with sterile saline and enough gauze to pack the wound and make a compression bandage.

shit happens when you don’t expect it.
 
Scraping the decals off the windshield of new used boat with a razor blade, oops. No band aids left in that owner's first aid kit. Earlier in Summer, fixing trailer stoplight in motel parking lot, noticed red blotches on upholstery. No band aids left in my boat either. In planning, you gotta multiply the percentage likelihood of the bad event times the necessary resource allocation with a total of 100%. Your 1st aid kit should mainly contain bandages.

Or, you could shoot the generals bearing bad news and get drunk for a month like Stalin did. Or, attribute it it to "confirmation bias" like our poodles with medals. Or prepare for a long hot spell when it might get cold. The future is a bitch!
 
MonacoMike said:
This is a repost of a post of mine from 2014 with an updated link.

What do you have for a first aid kit to save your life? Save your broken or damaged apendage? Save your boating day?

Hopefully, you are not saying "my cell phone", relying on a $20 big box store first aid kit, or a 10 year old dried out formely water soaked first aid kit.

Boating is one of the most dangerious activities one can partake in and it is also one of the least accessable to first responders. (Particulaly for coastal boaters.) Than means you better be self sufficient. I have no idea how I might use a scalpel but the ER Doc on the VHF may be able to tell me. Think of all the danger on your vessel. The number one is falls and the resulting broken bones. How will you stabilize a broken arm? I have a small assortment of casts for that. What about burns? I have moleskin for that.

Think of all the danger onboard. The falls already mentioned, chemical burns, fire or hot surface burns, cuts from loss of limb to a paper cut, insects stings and bites, heat stroke, and we have not even touched on human sickness. Dramamine has saved a boating day for us more than once when a guest had an upset stomach.


I used a Zee Medical "First Responder Kit" as my base and added the everyday type things to it as well as a few major items not in the kit such as scalpel, casts and moleskin.

https://zeemedicalnc.com/first-responder-kit/

I have discovered that it is a great learning experience to review what exactly is in the first aid kit and build my own list to acquire for my needs. Most of the super expensive kits have an inventory list, it is a great cheat sheet to help you figure out what you need. There is no one size fits all, a CC day boat will have different needs than a cruiser that likely already has the basic necessities like aspirin.



So check that kit before you launch and make sure it is the kit you want when all hell breaks loose and stop being a cheap azz...

(I have often asked dock mates what they carry for first aid so I know what you likely have)
Click to expand...

If boating is a "most dangerous activity" you are doing it wrong. It will not show up on insurance industry lists of risky recreational activities. Planning to avoid marine accidents and injuries is more important than your first aid kit. Operate your boat in a safe manner and instruct passengers on boating risks and appropriate behavior. #1 is to wear a life vest, #2 is limiting alcohol consumption aboard. #3 is having passengers seated while underway. Of course minor accidents will happen but they happen at home , as well. Certainly having a kit with the essentials is a great idea but with skilled operation of a recreational vessel, the likelihood of a broken bone or an amputation is exceedingly rare.
 
Juliery said:
If boating is a "most dangerous activity" you are doing it wrong. It will not show up on insurance industry lists of risky recreational activities. Planning to avoid marine accidents and injuries is more important than your first aid kit. Operate your boat in a safe manner and instruct passengers on boating risks and appropriate behavior. #1 is to wear a life vest, #2 is limiting alcohol consumption aboard. #3 is having passengers seated while underway. Of course minor accidents will happen but they happen at home , as well. Certainly having a kit with the essentials is a great idea but with skilled operation of a recreational vessel, the likelihood of a broken bone or an amputation is exceedingly rare.
Click to expand...

Such a defensive post. The point of the thread and my intention was to plant seeds in folks minds to prepare for the worst, to have a well thought out first aid kit. My experience has shown I rarely need it then. Everyone does boating differently because there are so many different ways and places to do it. Just because we can do something without injury doesn’t mean it is not dangerous.

Let’s review what I said.

“Boating is one of the most dangerious activities one can partake in and it is also one of the least accessable to first responders.”

What other activities do folks commonly participate in where they may be so difficult to reach by first responders, particularly when children or elderly are involved? Sorry to pop your bubble but the risks of life don’t stay on shore, your kids do stop having accidents, your dads failing health doesn’t get cured, you take all these risks offshore with you. The average person is usually just a few minutes from a first responder, usually not so boating, even on an inland lake.

I see you have a 290DA and a trailer for it. I have loaded and hauled heavy equipment in my life and that in itself is a dangerous undertaking, the loading of a boat usually happens after a long day on the water, with a frazzled wife trying to corral wired kids, I’m not even adding alcohol to the mix, not the ideal situation for loading and securing a big load. Why do people commonly joke about sitting at the launch to watch the mayhem?

It is actually a credit to boaters overall if one looks deeply at risks involved in boating…
 
blaster said:
You must not boat with many other people.

It’s easy to handle yourself but when you put kids and drunk adults in the mix shit happens.

I see folks get injured all the time around my area.

I had a friend on the swim platform when a large cruiser waked us from about 10 feet away. He was tossed off the back and severely injured his leg on a transom mount transducer. He had a giant gash that required a hospitalization. I was prepared with sterile saline and enough gauze to pack the wound and make a compression bandage.

shit happens when you don’t expect it.
Click to expand...

One I did not expect to see, a fit agile female navigating a bad docking situation between the finger pier and swim platform fell and a blunt dock cleat, (380DA size) impaled her leg. *hit happens, be prepared…
 
MonacoMike said:
One I did not expect to see, a fit agile female navigating a bad docking situation between the finger pier and swim platform fell and a blunt dock cleat, (380DA size) impaled her leg. *hit happens, be prepared…
Click to expand...
Is that when you jumped into action and made a mole skin repair?
 
Most of the boating issues that I've been involved in have required first aid training more than a first aid kit, but I still have a substantial kit on the boat.

The worst was when my wife and I were in our 20's, we were tubing with some friends. She was sitting in the tube, we hit a wake from another boat, she flew about 8 feet in the air, and when she came down her knee hit her face and shattered her nose. Fortunately, three of us on the boat were lifeguards, I went in after her and brought her to the boat, my two friends were able to get her up on the boat safely. Stopped the bleeding, stabilized for neck injury, treated for shock and to keep her conscious, one called 911, and we got her back to the ramp. EMS was at the ramp as we were arriving, so overall we were fortunate. Emergency department, significant concussion, and multiple surgeries.

This was just a typical day tubing with a fluke to have the wave hit her that way. Nothing reckless, we weren't going very fast, it just caught her off guard, she got thrown and she landed wrong. Things can go wrong on the water, you can either be prepared for them or not. I choose to be prepared.
 
MonacoMike said:
Such a defensive post. The point of the thread and my intention was to plant seeds in folks minds to prepare for the worst, to have a well thought out first aid kit. My experience has shown I rarely need it then. Everyone does boating differently because there are so many different ways and places to do it. Just because we can do something without injury doesn’t mean it is not dangerous.

Let’s review what I said.

“Boating is one of the most dangerious activities one can partake in and it is also one of the least accessable to first responders.”

What other activities do folks commonly participate in where they may be so difficult to reach by first responders, particularly when children or elderly are involved? Sorry to pop your bubble but the risks of life don’t stay on shore, your kids do stop having accidents, your dads failing health doesn’t get cured, you take all these risks offshore with you. The average person is usually just a few minutes from a first responder, usually not so boating, even on an inland lake.

I see you have a 290DA and a trailer for it. I have loaded and hauled heavy equipment in my life and that in itself is a dangerous undertaking, the loading of a boat usually happens after a long day on the water, with a frazzled wife trying to corral wired kids, I’m not even adding alcohol to the mix, not the ideal situation for loading and securing a big load. Why do people commonly joke about sitting at the launch to watch the mayhem?

It is actually a credit to boaters overall if one looks deeply at risks involved in boating…
Click to expand...

Not defensive, at all - I simply rebutted your contention but you have still provided no evidence to support it - just your dramatic speculation. I do agree that hauling out, towing and trailering can be demanding but again, hardly dangerous. I actually do it twice in a year: once in the Spring, to the marina and then again in the Fall, for winter storage. I have done so for 50 years, always with good equipment, no kids, no alcohol, no distractions and no accidents. The insurance industry analyzes and publishes risk statistics for most activities. Have a look.
 
Juliery said:
Not defensive, at all - I simply rebutted your contention but you have still provided no evidence to support it - just your dramatic speculation. I do agree that hauling out, towing and trailering can be demanding but again, hardly dangerous. I actually do it twice in a year: once in the Spring, to the marina and then again in the Fall, for winter storage. I have done so for 50 years, always with good equipment, no kids, no alcohol, no distractions and no accidents. The insurance industry analyzes and publishes risk statistics for most activities. Have a look.
Click to expand...

Those who minimize risk fail to account for it.

I gave you real world but you cannot see it for your blinders. Your definition of dangerous is skewed. Sorry I cannot help you, I’m certain there were those on the Titanic that were confident they had everything under control.
 
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