First Aid: Bring Your Own

Being a former Marine, I often find that I pull from my military training when it comes to outdoor activities. Survival skills always come in handy, especially when it comes to preventing disaster. One of the little tricks I learned in training was simple: always carry a personal first aid kit, and when you administer first aid to someone you use THEIR kit, not yours.

The logic here is that by using a person’s first aid on them, you always have yours ready if and when you need it. In combat, the injured person gets taken away by medical personell, so you are only left with what you initially had on you. In a civilian survival situation, you just might forget to refill your kit before the next adventure. Besides, make the person with the injury pay for the supply refill!

Now, that being said, I am not condoning the withholding of aid to someone in need. If you find someone without a first aid kit, then give them aid from what you have on hand. Additionally, if there is someone designated as a medic, they should be carrying extra kit to use on those in need.

One other tip: do not put your first aid kit down in a pack somewhere. It needs to be attached to you, and easy to get to, both for you and anyone that is there to help.