Shacknews LoL

This documentary covers Columbia and Challenger and how they their disasters paralleled each other. Narrated by NDT:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJUAGc9yH6A

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Obviously, training is critical for knowing how to properly administer care, so I highly recommend taking a first aid/CPR/AED class. The latter two are much more likely to save someone's life (since cardiac events are more common than big bleeds).

For any cardiac or trauma event, the priority is getting that person to advanced care. Nothing you do in the field will save that person; it's about keeping them alive long enough to make it to a hospital. Unfortunately, in mass casualty events, it can take a while for EMS to get to you. Keeping them alive long enough is something a bystander can do. In fact, the White House and Homeland Security are pushing that message hard through the Stop the Bleed initiative: http://www.dhs.gov/stopthebleed

Below are the kit contents. I have three kits: one in each of our two cars, plus one in my work backpack.

(1) SWAT-T Tourniquet
http://amzn.to/1QdBI0P
I like this tourniquet a lot. It's super simple to use, more compact than most traditional windlass tourniquets, and because it's just an elastic band, you can use it as a pressure dressing to hold pressure on a wound (without it being tightened enough to stop blood flow). Tourniquets are for arterial bleeds only (spurting, bright-red).

(2) QuikClot Sponge, 50g
http://amzn.to/1Ndfdm6
QuikClot sponges use kaolin (a mineral) to absorb blood and encourage clotting. You use them when pressure with a clean cloth alone won't stop the bleeding. They can also be used to pack deep wounds. The nice thing about the SWAT-T tourniquet is that you can pack a wound with the QuikClot sponge and lightly wrap the SWAT-T over it to hold it in place and provide pressure.

(2) Hyfin Vent Chest Seal
http://amzn.to/1PxVijE
Used for penetrating chest wounds. Keeps the person from developing a traumatic tension pneumothorax. Used in conjunction with a decompression needle if you have training (which I don't).

(1) CPR Barrier
http://amzn.to/1QdBN4t
Helpful to keep yourself protected against bloodborne pathogens when giving CPR.

(2) Pair of heavy-duty nitrile gloves
If it's red, wet, and not yours, you probably should't get it on you.

(1) SOL Emergency Blanket
http://amzn.to/1PxVteO
The reflective mylar kind. Keeps a patient warm until help arrives, which is important for preventing shock in someone who's bled out quite a bit. Also useful if your car gets stuck in snow and you have to wait for help. In the summer, the reflective side can go out to keep a hyperthermic person cool.

(1) Bottle of aspirin
Not for trauma. Giving aspirin to a bleeding patient is bad, bad, bad (it's a blood thinner). What it is useful for is for someone having a heart attack. Chewing four baby aspirin usually on EMT dispatch's pre-arrival checklist for a cardiac case.

Other things that can come in handy, which I keep in the car but not in my backpack:

Clean gauze (for wound compression)
Trauma shears (for snipping someone's clothing off to get better access to the chest for an AED)
Random little boo-boo kit items (bandages, NSAIDs, etc.)

You can also buy prebuilt kits, like these:

ITS EDC Trauma Kit
https://store.itstactical.com/medical/its-edc-trauma-kit.html

QuikClot Belt Trauma Kit
http://amzn.to/1QdCgDQ

Note: all Amazon links are my affiliate links.

Awesome Games Done Quick Wrap Up Thread
$1,213,256.99 raised for the Prevent Cancer Foundation

My list of notable runs in reply:

Conan Helps A Student Driver

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Za8BtLgKv8

love Conan's banter between them all :D

I am a criminal defense attorney. AMA.

My Background - BS in computer engineer, law school grad in 2006. 5 years as a prosecutor, 4 years as a defense attorney - all in the same county. My current practice includes trying murder and sex cases, all manner of drug offenses, all felonys, with a small focus on DUI and other misdemeanors. I have done three appeals, winning one them. I have tried three murder cases with my boss, winning one of them.

Please watch The Katering Show. It's legitmately funny. This is how I started. I want to marry McLennan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UZJRR8OHhY

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Republic Commando, played and commented by the lead developer:
pt1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywaCm9wrKqM

pt2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd9PkWahp8k
pt3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-Jg8J-wsLM
pt4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlGHcIDwfyw

What the Führer means for Germans today

http://www.economist.com/news/christmas-specials/21683971-seventy-years-after-adolf-hitlers-death-how-germans-see-him-changing-what

Great read.