[Closed] Medical/emergency stuff in your pack/bag?

Basic first aid kit with plasters, steri-strips, and bandages. Painkillers, I have a dodgy lower back from a snowboarding injury, and a foil blanket.

Everything has been used at some point, and I wouldn't go out on a big ride without these basics.

C.

Tick tweezers

Most folk will say "knowledge". A lot of stuff you REALLY need can be improvised and a lot of the nice to haves can be done without.

Tick twister, first field dressing and a roll of narrow gaffer tape is pretty useful.

For most rides nothing bar the bit of duct tape around my pump. Improvisation and knowledge is the key

For longer tours out in the highlands a tick twister becomes essential.

Full first aid kit includes

Paracetomol
Ibuprofen
Dihydrocodine
Antihistamines

Film dressings ( tegadern) ( cover superficial wounds / over the top of steristrips)
Hydrocolloid dressings ( duoderm) ( brilliant on gravel rash - both can be left on a week)

Cling bandage ( for tying broken bits of people together)

Steristrips - holding the edges of cuts together
Antihistamine cream

Ticktwister

We would have a swizz army knife so that has tweezers for splinters

A pen to write on the casualty what meds they have and at what time and what I suspect is wrong

I am considering taking a resuss aid thingy which is a gadget to allow you to do mouth to mouth without contamination

Foil blanket only if its a day trip into the wilds. If we are camping we have plenty of kit

OS map.

Waterproof
Insulated layer
Foil blanket
Phone
ERIRB if remote
First aid kit
Multitool
Tube
Tyre levers
Group shelter for 2 if in remote area
Hat
food
Water
If we are crossing remote areas we carry this between the two of us.
I you are injured you may have to wait some time to be rescued.
If we ride local we scale this down and in winter will carry more clothing.

I have a foil blanket, a phone and some first aid training.

*edit - plus tools, tubes, water, appropriate spare clothing depending on weather etc

Really depends where I’m going and what kind of riding. I work on the principle that the most effective things I can do are to keep someone warm and if necessary stop them bleeding.

If I’m out supervising a DofE group then I’ll take a more comprehensive kit with some ‘comfort’ items thrown in there (compeed, etc)

Its a very small subset of injuries where what you carry makes the difference between "ride over" and "carry on".

If out and remote the key thing is enough kit to survive overnight awaiting rescue in case of a serious injury and / or the right kit to make it possible to move the casualty to somewhere more sheltered awaiting rescue

Winter out and remote I really like to have 3 people - so two can move the casualty if needed / possible, one can stay with them and one can go for help.

Remember the Swizz cheese theory of accidents its when all the holes line up things can go really wrong and plan accordingly - ie fall, displaced fracture, no mobile signal, storm coming in

Ambulance dressing. Pair of scissors. Phone. Thats it. And a LOT of knowledge in these things.

Basic mountain warehouse 1st aid kit
Foil blanket
Polly survival bag
Mountain shelter if high level in winter
Tape
Water sterilization tablets
Pain killers
Tick tweezers

How many times a year does this come up?

Clean hankie.
Duct tape.
Knowledge.

If you can't fix it with those, call for help.

@crikey knowing how cold I got very quickly I'd think that a foil blanket is a must. No need for your irritated tone

Foil blankets are a waste of time.

Try sitting in your back garden on a cool evening wearing a foil blanket; not as much use as a windproof jacket for just about the same weight. Take a cheap nasty hooded synthetic jacket; it will keep you warmer for longer.

My tone is not an irritated one, I'm just surprised at how often this topic comes up with exactly the same results. People think they are safe by taking a 'first aid kit'. It's useless without the knowledge to use it and is still mostly useless even with the knowledge.

First aid pack, tick spiral thing and Brave Soldier rash packs. Have never used first aid kit or tick thing, but have twice handed out the gravel rash packs to folk and helped them use them. The injuries sustained in each fall wouldn't have meant 'ride over', but the pack helped make both recipients more comfortable and feel better set for the rest of that day and the trip beyond, I think.

Orange pack liner to put someone in (used twice in 6 weeks). Usual dressings and tape etc. 25 years of emergency first aid training. But still only able to get someone as safe as poss before getting a pro to them. Twice in Pentlands in last 2 months have had to give first aid. One heart attack - despite C19 was a resus job, aided and abetted by 2 off duty paramedics !, second was dislo shoulder from a walker that fell over.

A loaded Magnum ...

First aid has 2 purposes. 1st is to keep the damaged person intact until the paramedics arrive. 2nd is to enable the patient to continue with the ride. Obviously, if you get a slash across the knee your ride is over as nothing is going to stop it reopening. But a slash across the biceps or cheek can be patched up with steri strips or gaffer tape and carry on.

Foil blankets are a waste of time.

Disagree. Foil blankets are cheaper, lighter and most importantly more versatile than a jacket. I've used them a couple of times to help insulate people who weren't going anywhere for a while. In both cases they had extra clothes I could layer under the blanket, but I'm fairly convinced that wrapping them in a full-body windproof layer helped.

It also meant that I could wear my jacket myself to save the paramedics from dealing with 2 cases of hypothermia.

Orange pack liner

Also a good call, although quite heavy/bulky so will probably only carry if going solo somewhere remote or cold. If going remote with a group would take a bothy bag.

aspirin
duct tape
biggish, cleanish square of absorbent fabric that I've only ever used to lay out small bike parts when fixing stuff
always have a few velcro straps on the frame that I can use for various things

(I don't really do long rides in faraway places)

I agree with the foil blanket thing being a waste of time, ok it’s better than nothing but only marginally.

The only thing I carry when remote is an emergency bivy bag, slightly heavier than foil blanket but at least it will help you.

What’s with painkillers too? Are people a bit soft? If it’s a simple graze or bruise, man up, if it’s a fracture adrenaline will work enough, and when it doesn’t a paracetamol is going to be naff all use.

Other than that a phone or telling folk where I’m going and when I’ll be back

@funkydunc paracetamol has been my post op go to so I'd disagree that it's naff all use. Also it's a placebo too when waiting for emergency services. makes the casualty feel like something is being done in a long wait

Funkydunc - why put up with pain if a few grammes of pills can help? - and I carry proper serious painkillers as well. Adrenaline will not stop the pain of a broken leg for the time it takes to get rescue there - and paracetomol and ibuprofen in combination will certainly take the edge off the pain of a broken leg.

I do carry a small first aid kit with a few plasters, bandages etc - just lives in the bottom of my bag and solves those small things that mean a ride can just be continued as planned. Bigger stuff - yep some duct tape, knowledge and a bit of inspiration helps.

In response to the space blanket thing, I have a Sol emergency bivy - again lives in the bottom of my bag, and is small enough to forget about but as it is a sleeping bag style more affective than a simple blanket.

However, the one time I had have to call mountain rescue as my ACL/MCL collapsed, I was doing a relatively easy walk. Emergency stuff was in my bike bag, and after 2.5 hours waiting in the wind and rain I was mildly hyperthermic and REALLY wished I had that bivy bag with me. There no first aid kit that would have helped, but the few painkillers I did have my bag did take the edge off things, and the MR was grateful I had looked after myself.

For most rides just my phone.

Anything away in the hills I’ll add a space blanket (a chunky one), some bodge tape and a few sanitary towels.

I always stuff in the car to tidy up anything minor at the end of the ride.

and paracetomol and ibuprofen in combination will certainly take the edge off the pain of a broken leg.

You shouldn’t be taking ibuprofen, thins blood, which is not good when you don’t know what the injuries are, and what care someone may need at hospital

I have one of those little kits you see in Lidl every now and again for a few £... Its actually very good. Added a foil blanket and the most important 2 things - superglue and anbesol. Those two can fix most trail cuts and the likely stuff and anything worse you really need to be thinking about an ambulance anyway, so the kit is just in case and the foil blanket to possibly stop you dying while you wait although it was a freebie so I don't know if it would actually do anything, Ive never tested it in anger.

Are you sure about that Funkydunc? Are you confusing it with aspirin or with the ibuprofen side effects of gastric bleeding?

blimey this place is well touchy sometimes - what do people expect, the same topics will never come up, you never know, new interesting info might actually come out of them!!

anyway - it is a good topic and probabyl relevant to everyone and most will have been in situations needing some form of firstaid.

I will agree with Mr Angry up there, that knowledge is by far the most suitable tool, so get yourself on some courses if you can, or do some research to give you a better idea. I spent a number of years in the Army and in hot dusty places so know only too well that most stuff you can realistically carry on an MTB is useless

Foil blankets if used correctly are good, they cover more of the body and can pack away smaller - best used in conjunction with a jacket though.

Duraderm stuff is good for stemming bleeding and keeping shiv out, and posibly some gauze with a good wrap around bandage - failing that carry around at least 1 x emergency field dressing. Some steri wipes good. Tampons too, good if you impale yourself and the object has already been removed (but not intentionally of course)

Problem with drugs is that you are likely to be administering them after a heavy fall, which is not good, so unless they are for yourself i wouldnt bother.

I've patched up deep bleeds with tissue and innertubes before (and just innertubes). Slings you can make out of camelbacks/shirts etc.

For those annoying nigles (abrasions/blister) then at least a few plasters would be good, and/or blister kit (you can use these as plasters anyway.

Basic first aid kit including pain killers, plus stuff to keep you alive until help arrives, given exposure is the biggest threat and you might be there a while and in the hills a phone might be naff all use.
Foil blanket
Plastic poncho
Spare baselayer
Hat
Whistle (you shouldn't be in the hills without one)
10m of paracord
Multitool
Windproof lighter
Torch
With a few branches/ bike bits I can cobble a shelter/stretcher/splints draw attention to myself.

Local pootle, none of that stuff

Went for a pootle locally, looked at first aid kit and thought naah! Friend stopped on stream bank, slipped and fell on his bike. Brake lever into back of knee up to the adjuster. Stuffed glove into hole and bound with spare inner tube, managed to limp/side-saddle him to nearest road and went for his car and onto A&E. Never ridden without kit since and usually accompanied by Mrs Nitster who is a GP.

Cling bandage ( for tying broken bits of people together)

Different people?!!?! You MONSTER!

Mine has 2 jobs to do really. The everyday- indigestion pills, painkillers, etc, stuff to make rides go better that will never really do anything important. I pretty much never go anywhere without a compeed blister plaster, they're amazing things. And emergency stuff- a cpr aid thing, an emergency shelter, and a haemostatic trauma bandage and some tape. Recently added some kid's asprin for heart attack. There's a spare phone in my main bag but that's just because I have a spare phone really.

Basic foil blankets aren't great but they're not a waste of time either. But I figure that if you're going to carry one of those, you may as well carry a small shelter as they're about the same size.

One of the side effects of these drugs are that they inactivate platelets. They do it to varying degrees. Aspirin permanently inactivates any platelets in circulation. Ibuprofen has a shorter duration, a week. You have a much greater tendency to bleed if a large percentage of your platelets are not working. As a result surgeons do not want you to bleed during surgery so you are asked not to take those drugs.

Ta Funky - every day is a school day.

Tick twister
Oily rag.

I obviously need to think harder about this.

Cling bandage ( for tying broken bits of people together)

Different people?!!?! You MONSTER!

Thats how one makes a monster

Signed
Dr Frankenstein