We've had a couple of great days of weather here in the midwest, and my fiance and I decided we were going to go out for a quick walk down to the corner grocery store to get some exercise - when we watched a pretty terrible ATV accident unfold right in front of us.

A couple of guys were drag racing their ATV's down a residential street when one of them lost control and dumped it. He was going a pretty solid 35 - 40 when he was ejected, and bounced his head pretty good on the sidewalk (Yes, he managed to jump the curb...) and was unconscious.

I was about a 1/4 block away from him when it happened, and by the time I got to him I already had my phone out and had contacted 911, and informed them we had an ATV accident, the age of the driver, that he was unconsious and breathing shallow and labored. I gave a quick assessment of his condition - gash to the head, bleeding from his nose.. and an arm that appeared to bent at a slightly strange angle.

Other who ran up to him seemed to want to immediatly flip him onto his back, but I spoke up and recommended to NOT move him at all, that his breathing was not obstructed.

911 told me if I had a something clean to help stop the bleeding a little I could use that, so I pulled out my EDC and had a few bandages that I used to help slow the bleeding until the first responders showed up about five minutes later. He actually started to wake up right before they arrived, and he wanted to try to get up.. but when he moved he winced a lot and said his arm was hurting a lot. He didn't know what had happened, but I tried to keep him calm and told him not to move.

When the paramedics arrived, they really thanked me for helping out - I think they were a little surprised that someone had a first aid kit on them right at the scene of the accident.

The police showed up, took statements etc.. The driver was very lucky, he missed a parked car by about a foot with his body. If he would have hit the car, I am sure his injuries would have probably been even more severe.

There have been a slew of ATV accidents here over the last few months, and police have been pretty much powerless to catch them as they are pretty hard to catch. This incident will definately slow down these two drag racing "Big Kids" for a while I am sure.

In short - you never know when you might be able to render a little aid to someone. It felt good knowing I was a little prepared for something as unexpected as this.

Whew. Good job!

Cool! Can you describe your kit or post a pic? Do you carry it in your pocket or in a bag?

Nice job. Good AAR. Thanks for sharing it with us.

I basically modeled it after the one I found here:

http://www.anylastword.com/2012/07/how-to-construct-a-pill-bottle-first-aid-kit/

I used fewer bandaids, and replaced them with a couple of gauze pads that I ended up using the other day..

Rod

I like the pill bottle idea for a EDC pants pocket kit, but IMO it is too little (in all respects) for any "hiking" more than a walk around a city park. But it certainly did the job (with your modifications) when the time came.

Congrats to you for a job well done.

Oh, whole heartedly agree. I have a more complete set of stuff I carry in my Office bag, and some stuff I carry in my truck as well and some I have in a sling pack I take with me when out bicycling... You don't expect to run into this stuff walking four blocks to the local store, but amazingly enough... it came in handy that day.

I'm not smart enough to build my own serious FAK so I just bought an AMK Comprehensive Kit. I suppose it's a good kit, but the FAK I've used more often is a 4"x3.5"x1" pocket kit labeled "Johnson&Johnson" that I modified with a few band-aids, one 2"x2" gauze pad, two 2"x2.25" adhesives pads, "Wash'n Dri" towlette, cleaning wipes, alcohol swabs, Povidone-Iodine pads and a small tube of neosporin.

Edit: The original J&J kit can be found at:
Johnson&Johnson First Aid To Go Mini Kit

Normally that FAK is kept in a vest I wear when walking dogs and doing other things in the great Interstitial Wilderness (I'm not Bill) but it fits easily into thigh side pockets too. That said, the kit is small and really just designed to clean superficial wounds and cover relatively small boo boos.

For anything outside the scope of "superficial", the AMK Comprehensive Kit is in the truck. There are two pair of nitrile gloves in the vest, but not part of the pocket kit; additional gloves are in the truck's kit.

At home I have another nice convenient boo boo kit and a larger kit made up of bulk refills for the other kits which includes larger dressings not in any of the kits, bottled Iodine, hydrogen peroxide et al.

FWIW

Thanks, that tiny kit is an example of the saying, "the best FAK is the one I have with me." In other words, you might have a comprehensive kit that is neatly organized at home or in your car in your garage. Such a kit would have been useless in the situation you described in the original post.

Nice set-up. I prefer flatter boxes; fits better to the body. But whatever works.
Nicely done.

Teacher