Ever since about 15 years old, I've always had a chain with my keys at the end. For me its so I dont forget my keys, but if there are other uses for them, so be it. Otherwise, phone n wallet and nothing else. Altho I always have a bag with me, backpack etc.... just in case I end up spontaniously grocery shop. So in there, phone charger and portable battery for phones. I keep thinking of buying a RFID card tho
Sorry..... I forgot... I carry a phone, sometimes 2...work makes me carry one 5 days a week...my wife makes me carry the other one 7 days a week
For the love of all that is holy, do not do this. You can seriously damage tissues using tourniquets that are too narrow. If you want/need to have a tourniquet, get a proper one like a CAT or a SOFTT (and the training to use them).
My personal EDC is: Pockets: Folding knife Wallet Keys Phone Pen Flashlight Second knife/mini multi tool (uses a box cutter blade) Peanut lighter Backpack: Boo boo kit (bandages, liquid bandage, antacids, pain relievers) Rain poncho Long sleeve wool shirt (in cold weather) Water bottle Battery bank and multiple power cables. A couple of plastic bags (multiple uses) A few Clif bars
Relax. I carry a SAM XT in my car's first aid kit, so the paracord certainly isn't my first choice (hence why I wrote "makeshift"). If absolutely nothing else is available and the patient is gushing blood out of a hole in the leg, wrapping the cord around a layer of clothing cut off above the wound will stop it cutting into the skin. As for training I've taken TCCC and FREC 3 & 4.
Not those new cardboard ones. They go soggy in a milkshake before you've finished it so they'd have no chance in a neck cavity.
I have a couple of metal straws in the glove box for the rare occasion I need sustenance and I'm nowhere near a supermarket. Less than a fiver for six and a cleaning brush and probably handy for other uses that I'm yet to try.
Oh I've just seen far too many people who think their t-shirt/belt/shoelace is "just as good" and also have zero training
On my last first aid course it was suggested that stemming the bleed with whatever you have outweighs any future damage caused by a tourniquet, no matter what you use. Tissue damage/toxic shock were secondary to keeping the patient alive. This was a couple of years ago though and I'm no doctor so could be incorrect. It seems reasonable to me though
Fun anecdote, a few years ago I was pulled out of work as the first aider because a lad had been knocked off his motorbike and essentially had his foot ripped off , luckily a trauma doctor based in the military wing of the QE was passing and had already taken charge , so I was able to step back and just help as asked. He eventually decided the lad was losing too much blood and used one of the bystanders belt as a tourniquet , the lad lost his leg , but lived.
Sure....but we're talking about active planning versus improvisation here. If you were someone who didn't plan the things you carry, which the very existence of this thread contraindicates. It's the equivalent of saying you can build a water filter out of dirt, rocks, and charcoal, when you have the option to choose to carry a filter ahead of time. Making your fallback your first line is, to put it kindly, less than ideal.
Less than ideal, yes. However it's surely better than nothing. I carried a CAT Tourniquet on duty from when I joined up. I saw it as something that may help me. My force didn't issue them or advocate their use. Before I left the training team realised stabbings were on the increase and wanted training for this, but big bosses said no. Training team said basically anything is better than nothing. They couldn't issue them, nor train us for them but they wanted us to be aware that blood loss is a real thing that can ruin ones day.
You shouldn't be planning on tools of last resort being your tools of first resort though, unless you're specifically prohibited from using better/proper equipment by departmental policy, local laws, extreme poverty, or unless you're simply not planning at all. The idea of "better than nothing" or "but it works well as an improvised tool" has no place in actively selecting gear. If I told you that we were going back-country camping and you could either pack toilet paper or wipe with a pine cone you found (better than nothing), any sensible person is going to choose to bring the TP and you'd think anyone who wanted to wipe with the pine cone instead, was daft.
We weren't issued the kit. I bought my own for use on me mainly, or a colleague. Not everyone was willing to buy them. I was -planning ahead - so was prepared. Not everyone had that mindset. I'm not condoning not carrying the right kit, but improvising is better than nothing.
