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I had discussed tactical trauma training with an exhibitor at the Plano gun show last weekend. He recommended Lonestar Medics as a good provider for such training in the DFW area. I don't know anything further about them, but will be contacting them in the next week or so.

I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who has experience with them.

Skiprr wrote:

OldSchool wrote:

Skiprr wrote:...I decided a few years ago to take a basic gunshot field trauma course, and have put stuff together based on that.

Where does one find this type of course? We will be renewing our First Aid cert this month, but didn't see an actual trauma course.

I can't wholeheartedly recommend the course I took, so I'll PM you rather than mentioning it here.

I'd also like our EMT-experienced folks to chime in and mention any similar courses that would be open to and suitable for non-medical-professionals. When I was interested in this a few years ago I remember looking at state EMS certification and tried following a variety of links regarding training. But everything seemed geared to--understandably--medical professionals, and the classes available without clinical (hospital/ambulance) hours as a requisite were only ECA (Emergency Care Attendant) stuff and didn't seem to delve into the kind of immediate injury response I was looking for.

The Red Cross offers specialty courses in Professional Rescuer training and in Wilderness training; those are closest to the battlefield first-aid I was looking for, but neither really matched. Always good to have the standard first aid plus CPR/AED training, but since I was carrying a gun, I specifically wanted instruction on gunshot wounds.

I haven't looked into courses for some time. With more of our military returning, there may be more options now for something like "Battlefield First-Aid 101" classes.

Tiger Valley has offered a tactical medicine course in the past in the DFW area. You might try contacting them to see if they will be conducting a course near you in the next couple of months.

evilmercer wrote:For those of you who go shooting/hunting on land and not at a gun range do you take an extensive first aid kit?

I came to the realization that even though my family goes shooting on land no one ever brings a first aid kit. Luckily we have never needed one but I thought it might be good to put one together or buy one.

Did you buy a kit from somewhere and add some extra stuff, or did you build your own?

What all does it have in it?

I am thinking that I would want to build a pretty heavy duty one to take out with us because we are usually about 30 min to 1hr away from a hospital most of the time.

Thanks in advanced for any input you can give.

I'm not a doctor nor a medical professional of any kind, but I have had a fair amount of training on dealing with injuries where help is not close by and have given thought to my personal preparations. Here are my ideas, which are not medical advice in any sense and are worth exactly what you paid for them.

Where gunshot wounds and severe cuts are a possibility, I think it's a good idea to be prepared to stop heavy bleeding and seal the chest against air leakage so breathing can work. If a severe injury occurs in an area where highly skilled medical help is more than just a couple of minutes away, lack of some basic equipment and training sufficient to maintain respiration and circulation will quickly turn a survivable injury into a nonsurvivable one.

Trauma bandages and QuickClot or a similar clotting agent, preferably in sponge form that can be directly packed into a wound, are in my kit. Some SWAT officers carry various sizes of tampons to push into gunshot wounds to help slow bleeding. They're neither sterile nor ideal, but they have been used to save lives. I also keep an Ascherman chest seal unit, but you can make do with some celluloid and tape if you know what you're doing.

Field medics I know recommend duck seal tape over the first aid type found in stores because it sticks better when wet - as bloody areas tend to be.

I stock the Swat-T tourniquet because it can be used either as a pressure bandage or tourniquet to stop arterial bleeding in the limbs, and can be applied with one hand.

Tac Med Solutions and Galls's are both good sources of preconfigured kits for various situations from everyday first aid to traumatic injury.

If all this is Greek to you, the best place to start is with basic first aid and tactical medicine courses. The equipment won't do you any good if you don't know how to use it.