Medical / First Aid Kit

Stephen Weiss

Stephen Weiss

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There doesn't seem to be a recent thread about First Aid Kits ...

A thread about Portuguese bureaucracy set me off on mandatory safety equipment and thence to first aid kits (I wanted to know what "Kit A (see rules)" meant and I haven't found it yet)!

A paperchase through the Italian regulations brought me to a 1988 decree from the Ministry of Health that stipulates an unsurprising list of first aid items like plasters and bandages and ammonia in a dark glass phial. I wonder how many infractions have been issued to yachtsmen keeping their ammonia in clear glass or, perish the thought, plastic bottles! Item 95 on a more extensive list for commercial passenger vessels includes 2 liters of grappa (for medicinal purposes of course)!

Then I discovered the WHO's "International Medical Guide for Ships 3rd edition Including the ship’s medicine chest" http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2007/9789240682313_eng.pdf the reading of which took up the whole of the afternoon!

Now I've always been concerned about the paucity of Nereide's medical facilities, which consist of two boxes of plasters and a bandage of uncertain vintage. It certainly wouldn't pass an official inspection by Portuguese sea police!

Any advice ... ?

We also have some asprins.
 
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When I bought Ladybird her 1st Aid kit comprised a large Tupperware box containing one stained triangular bandage, assorted elastoplasts, bottles opened and unopened devoid of labels, a bunch of rust-fused safety pins, various hangover cures priced in £sd . . . and 2,000 anti-malarial tablets! I concluded her previous owner was a well-travelled accident prone recovering alcoholic. (not true, he is a very pleasant gentleman).

Ladybird now has TWO 1st aid kits: One run-of-the-mill with basic stuff like plasters, burn-eeze, paracetomol, brufen and the like; the other with suture kits, inflatable splints and Tunisian strength co-codamol, etc.
 
Porthandbuoy said:
When I bought Ladybird her 1st Aid kit comprised a large Tupperware box containing one stained triangular bandage, assorted elastoplasts, bottles opened and unopened devoid of labels, a bunch of rust-fused safety pins, various hangover cures priced in £sd . . . and 2,000 anti-malarial tablets! .
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And you still have not had to use any of it ??
 
I did an inventory of our medical stuff last weekend. I hauled 8 or 9 boxes out of the cupboard and found 3 domestic first aid kits, a 'medical kit' including sutures, needles, syringes, cannulas etc, then 4 large tupperware boxes made up for our atlantic passage by medic daughter. All manner of drugs, dental kit, several thermometers, at least 4 triangular bandages, dozens of wound dressings, creams pills and potions to deal with everything you could think of plus a few more. And a copy of the Ship Captain's Medical Guide that tells me how to deliver a baby or lay out a corpse.
 
In my first aid course the instructor said that he had never heard of an instance of the triangular bandage being used. It is actually one item that always gets used in mine. I find them particularly good for straining paint that has skinned over. It is also less dangerous than stealing tights from the womenfolk.
 
Amulet said:
In my first aid course the instructor said that he had never heard of an instance of the triangular bandage being used.
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On my last course we spent the better part of an hour practising two ways to use the TB for broken bones and cut hands. Don't tell me it was time wasted :eek:

Swmbo wasn't sure we had one on board so she went and bought another from Boots. When we took inventory we found we had 4 so we could have bandaged up both her arms and both of mine (and steered with our feet?)
 
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