Also pull out your first aid kit and look at whats in it.
I bolstered mine with some antiseptic, paper tape, strapping tape, more bandages and better bandaids.
And if you’re camping like to have duct tape and toilet paper. Duct tape is great for fixing broken hike or tent poles.
A tourniquet might be a good idea to have, but you shouldn’t use it without training. It could be a good thing to have to hand to someone with training if it were needed, but that will only be useful in places with lots of people, like a protest or something. For your home first aid kit, maybe skip it.
I keep thinking I need to get a real one for my bug out bag and keep putting it off. “Well, hopefully today’s not the collapse of society!”
Last few times I did my first aid certificate I was taught not to use tourniquet; in fact it wasn’t taught at all. I guess in most situations it makes sense not to use it, in situations where it would make sense to use it I would not have first aid kit handy.
Most people in military combat end up dying from bleeding caused by an injury. It can happen in two minutes where they lose enough blood to die. A tourniquet will stop that bleeding as long as the injury is in an extremity and can be left on for hours without further damage, giving you enough time to get to a hospital.
I believe that is the only place I learned about tourniquets in first aid cert. In that case you can use a shirt and a piece of stick. I’m doubtful of “hours without further damage” though. They definitely have their place but for understandable reasons they’re not recommended for regular first aid.
Military combat is pretty different from the sort of injury you might get around the house.
