Emergency Medical Supplies?

[NOMN]

Besides reading 10,000 books, can we get some basic recommendations from painful experience?! Like a small list, anyone?

So far, from what I've read I have heard burn gel is essential. You won't think you need it, until its too late.

[amytom]

Originally Posted by NOMN

Besides reading 10,000 books, can we get some basic recommendations from painful experience?! Like a small list, anyone?

So far, from what I've read I have heard burn gel is essential. You won't think you need it, until its too late.

Attend a seven seas cruising association "gam". They have many classes covering all the questions you've been asking. Last one I attended in Melbourne we had a suture class that allowed us to not only learn but practice. (On pigs feet).

Look up the SSCA and plan to attend the closest event to you.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by NOMN

So far, from what I've read I have heard burn gel is essential. You won't think you need it, until its too late.

First aid for burns is water. So why buy expensive product when the tap is free and recommended?

[NOMN]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

First aid for burns is water. So why buy expensive product when the tap is free and recommended?

The paiiiiin for days after. Need more than just water for that if you want to keep your sanity on a 30 day ocean voyage!

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by NOMN

Besides reading 10,000 books, can we get some basic recommendations from painful experience?! Like a small list, anyone?

So far, from what I've read I have heard burn gel is essential. You won't think you need it, until its too late.

Since brand names can vary( in no order)

Broad spectrum antibiotics ( check for suitability ), cream, suppository and oral ( amoxillin etc )
Pain treatment , opiates and others ibuphen etc
Hydrating agents
Burn gels
Yeast and fungal inflections treatment , especially if women crew
Malox or equivalent , Zantac is also used to control acid
Conjunctivitis drops
Epi pen ( but needs refrid )
Bee and insect sting treatments
Sunburn treatments

Usual home medical stuff , nurofen, aspirin , etc

If yiu can stitch a wound then appropriate equipment or considering stapling

Butterfly strips ( for wound closure )

Bandages etc

Attend some appropriate classes

Dave

[Teknav]

Hi Mark! First aid for burns is ICE; cold water can be a substitute, if ice is not available. You want to stop the formation of thymine dimers (DNA deformity), as soon as possible.

Mauritz

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

First aid for burns is water. So why buy expensive product when the tap is free and recommended?

If it is a serious burn, you'll need more than water. The skin is open and extremely susceptible to infection and to scaring. Silverdine works well. It is the only meds that we have had to use out of our first aid kit. (knock on teak)

[AiniA]

A doctor friend recommended Silvadene (sp?) for burns and a skin stapler instead of suturing. We also did a wilderness first aid course that was quite useful. In several years of cruising we have had two medical emergencies. In one case two hospitals were five minutes away (South Africa). In the other case an infected boil developed a few days after we left Easter Island. It was not completely cleared until Fiji many montths later in spite of ultimately courses of three different kinds of antibiotics. Make sure you have antibiotics for different purposes - one size does not fit all. Twice daily cleaning and dressing of the boil (advice from a doctor on another boat over SSB) meant we used dozens of gauze dressings. We started with around 30 but it wasn't nearly enough. Of course since we bought a box of 100 we haven't used one. OP asked about expiry of meds. It certainly is an issue.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by NOMN

The paiiiiin for days after. Need more than just water for that if you want to keep your sanity on a 30 day ocean voyage!

I'm sorry but the first aid is the first aid:

Cool the burn. Hold the burned area under cool (not cold) running water for 10 or 15 minutes or until the pain subsides. If this is impractical, immerse the burn in cool water or cool it with cold compresses. Cooling the burn reduces swelling by conducting heat away from the skin. Don't put ice on the burn.
Cover the burn with a sterile gauze bandage. Don't usefluffy cotton, or other material that may get lint in the wound. Wrap the gauze loosely to avoid putting pressure on burned skin. Bandaging keeps air off the burn, reduces pain and protects blistered skin.
Take an over-the-counter pain reliever. These include aspirin, ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin, others), naproxen (Aleve) or acetaminophen (Tylenol, others). Caution

• Don't use ice. Putting ice directly on a burn can cause a person's body to become too cold and cause further damage to the wound.
• Don't apply egg whites, butter or ointments to the burn. This could cause infection.
• Don't break blisters. Broken blisters are more vulnerable to infection.

Notice: NO GELS - NO ANTIBIOTICS - NO NOTHIN except WATER!

Its only the pain that hurts now be a man and stop playing with fire!


Mark

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

I'm sorry but the first aid is the first aid:



Notice: NO GELS - NO ANTIBIOTICS - NO NOTHIN except WATER!

Its only the pain that hurts now be a man and stop playing with fire!


Mark

That may be fine for 1st degree burns. For 2nd deg and 3 rd you'll need more if you don't have access to med care. It has nothing to do with being a man and dealing with the pain. It has more to do with avoiding infections, maintaining fluid levels and in serious burns keeping the patient alive.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by Paul L

That may be fine for 1st degree burns. For 2nd deg and 3 rd you'll need more if you don't have access to med care..

No Paul. I'm sorry but you need to be correct on first aid. Lives depend on it.
Go pick your first aid book back up and see what it says for 3rd deg. WATER! (Take careful note of amounts of water for 3rd deg so they dont get hypothermia.)

Also access to med care and long passages are two mutually exclusive things so you need to be full bottle on the correct first aid.

Now, back to the main thrust of the thread. Boats do not need every drug in the world, nor all the fancy instruments, but people do need to have their Senior First Aid Remote Area certificate.

Its so importnat for cruising boats to have the ability to survive without having 911 every moment becasue so many places there just isnt contact. But that doesnt mean buying junk to fill boxes of first aid kits. Doing the first aid certificate will show you how little you need apart from knowledge.


Mark

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

No Paul. I'm sorry but you need to be correct on first aid. Lives depend on it.
Go pick your first aid book back up and see what it says for 3rd deg. WATER! (Take careful note of amounts of water for 3rd deg so they dont get hypothermia.)

Also access to med care and long passages are two mutually exclusive things so you need to be full bottle on the correct first aid.

Now, back to the main thrust of the thread. Boats do not need every drug in the world, nor all the fancy instruments, but people do need to have their Senior First Aid Remote Area certificate.

Its so importnat for cruising boats to have the ability to survive without having 911 every moment becasue so many places there just isnt contact. But that doesnt mean buying junk to fill boxes of first aid kits. Doing the first aid certificate will show you how little you need apart from knowledge.


Mark

Mark
We are talking beyond first aid here because of the fact you're on an offshore boat. You're first aid book may say water only. Many others go further, including the info I got from the ER doc teaching an offshore medicine class. Here's a wilderness medicine article on burns that goes further than water. https://www.outdoored.com/community/...for-burns.aspxYou're point that you don't need to open a pharmacy to sail offshore is very valid. I just think that burns are something to be prepared for and one helpful drug for this is Sliverdine.

[McGinnis]

Don't forget about a medical kit for your two dogs! After spending a season with a 110lb Beauceron in Mexico, he ended up need more medical attention than my wife and I combined.

[gjordan]

I am surprised that no one has mentioned catheters. When talking to a doctor before my first passage, he said that a serious urinary infection that keeps you from urination, will kill you in 3 days or less. Antibiotics dont always clear them up, and a catheter is needed. In the old days of sailing the solution was to take a fid or horse needle and stab the person in the belly where you hope the bladder is, and hope you hit it, to relieve the pressure. Having catheters on board (male and female) is a better solution. Cheap, easy to store, and possibly life saving.______Grant.

[SmartMove]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

First aid for burns is water. So why buy expensive product when the tap is free and recommended?

You, obviously, have never had a burn.

Because, from whitewater rafting experience (when I was 4-days from medical help) after burning myself it made the difference between extreme pain or rowing myself out! Water, cold water, is good, but for serious burns that will not work, you need something similar to Silvadene(?).

We would never leave home without Silvadene(?) for rafting, back backing, or sailing. We have it on board now.