top 5 injuries and your first aid kit...

Share your tips for safe hiking, surviving in the wild and managing hiking injuries!
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5th
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Joined: April 27th, 2015, 9:11 am
Location: Eugene

Re: top 5 injuries and your first aid kit...

Post by 5th » October 1st, 2015, 11:24 am

Chazz: I think you meant safety pins, not clothes pins.

Myself, my first aid kit philosophy is that it is only for two cases:

1. Injuries that can be mitigated in the backcountry and for which I would not want to go home or to the hospital.
2. Keeping myself alive long enough to get back to the trailhead and head for an emergency room.

I don't expect to handle anything too bad in the field. I can either deal with it and keep hiking, or I'm headed for civ. This reduces the list of items in my kit to a manageable weight.

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Koda
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Joined: June 5th, 2009, 7:54 am

Re: top 5 injuries and your first aid kit...

Post by Koda » October 1st, 2015, 12:17 pm

5th wrote:Chazz: I think you meant safety pins, not clothes pins.

Myself, my first aid kit philosophy is that it is only for two cases:

1. Injuries that can be mitigated in the backcountry and for which I would not want to go home or to the hospital.
2. Keeping myself alive long enough to get back to the trailhead and head for an emergency room.

I don't expect to handle anything too bad in the field. I can either deal with it and keep hiking, or I'm headed for civ. This reduces the list of items in my kit to a manageable weight.
your #2 is exactly what I'm talking about for this thread, what would be the top 5 injuries you would need to prepare for, for #2?
lightweight, cheap, strong... pick 2

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texasbb
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Location: Tri-Cities, WA

Re: top 5 injuries and your first aid kit...

Post by texasbb » October 1st, 2015, 4:01 pm

Koda wrote:
5th wrote:...
2. Keeping myself alive long enough to get back to the trailhead and head for an emergency room.
your #2 is exactly what I'm talking about for this thread, what would be the top 5 injuries you would need to prepare for, for #2?
That's not how I interpreted your original post, hence my blister entry. A few thoughts:
  • Injuries of this nature are bound to be very rare...
  • ...So you're unlikely to get much worthwhile info from anecdotal inputs here. You need data/studies with a broader scope/reach than OH.org.
  • Anyone here who's experienced enough #2s to list 5 of them needs a different hobby and I wouldn't be taking advice of any kind from him! :)
  • I doubt there are many #2s for which anything you could carry in a FAK would be of much help. The main exceptions probably have to do with allergies.
  • Not living long enough to get back to the trailhead is probably less about injuries than other fails. The first three of that top 5 are probably hypothermia, hypothermia, and hypothermia.
IANAP

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Koda
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Re: top 5 injuries and your first aid kit...

Post by Koda » October 1st, 2015, 4:42 pm

Sometimes I'm not good at typing my point across I should have maybe said top 5 serious injuries, but really that was my bad for not clarifying. Certainly blisters are one of the most common injuries.

I realize the odds are low for serious injuries but I was just wondering if there is anything realistic that can be carried. I started reading a book called Mountaineering First Aid by the Mountaineers where they cover various topics perhaps when I finish I'll have a better idea if there is anything worthwhile to add to a basic kit. A quick skim seems to be more about what to do than what to bring...
lightweight, cheap, strong... pick 2

viking
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Joined: July 5th, 2009, 6:49 pm

Re: top 5 injuries and your first aid kit...

Post by viking » October 4th, 2015, 4:40 pm

What you know to do in an emergency is much more important than what you carry. I recommend that anyone going out into the back country take an advanced course. Wilderness First Responder courses are the gold standard. There are many other good courses readily available out there, Mazama Mountaineering first aid being one of them. Red Cross Basic First aid only tells you to not let anyone else get hit by a car and call 911, great in town, but more than a few 100' from a trail head....
I add to a lot of the other gear listed, Sam Splint, Vicodin.

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