Essential first aid items.

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John Brown

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What are the essential first aid items to keep handy in one's shed/workshop?
Bandages? Tourniquet? Plasters? Jameson's?
Just realised I don't have anything in my shed, what's a useful starter pack?
 
A decent first aid kit is essential as you never know , hopefully you will only need the occasional plaster or antiseptic wipe . Eye wash extremely useful to have also burn gel. Be aware that the contents have a use by date . Jamesons however does not need a use by date 🥃 🥃
 
Last first aid course I did the chap running it suggested a roll of cling film should be included, very good for covering large wounds apparently, and easy to get off.
He also said fix the box to a vertical surface so it doesn't get covered in stuff, and think about what you can open/tie one-handed if working alone
 
Last first aid course I did the chap running it suggested a roll of cling film should be included, very good for covering large wounds apparently, and easy to get off.
He also said fix the box to a vertical surface so it doesn't get covered in stuff, and think about what you can open/tie one-handed if working alone
I've yet to find ANY plaster that can bo opened with one hand!!
 
I've yet to find any cling film(outside of America), that can be operated with one hand!

Just have it on a dispenser - you can pull and cut it with one hand. The technique is to pull a load off then start to wrap it around the arm.

I do it every month when I have a drip left in my arm overnight - I wrap the bandages in clingfilm to keep them dry when I shower.
 
A lot depends upon what you’re doing. Generally, yes, a workshop will have sharp stuff. But not everyone will have potential for burns.

In the realm of sticking plasters, I really wouldn’t worry too much; in the event that one is needed, you’ve time to stop everything, walk back to the kitchen for a cuppa and to sort yourself out properly. Or more likely, tape it up with masking tape and carry on.

The things which beg further thought are those potential injuries that demand more urgent attention. So to go back to the burns example, I’d want a clean water source, to cool a thermal injury or to wash a chemical one. And in the case of electrical burn, a means to isolate the power.

As for cuts (by which I mean serious ones, where the priority is stemming the bleeding), keep it simple with a quantity of bandages.

Advice on tourniquets has changed over the years. Once fitted (the time should be noted), they will be painful, but should not be removed until you are in hospital.

However, were a tourniquet called for, there is likely to be a risk of shock (not the type from receiving bad news!), which brings me back to someone’s earlier point of the need to be able to summons help! A first aider’s first act should be to call for help, be that of a friend, colleague, passer by or the emergency services.
 
After asking a similar question I now keep some haemostatic dressings in my workshop and in van. Not cheap but seems like they are the thing to have if it all goes horribly wrong 😬
 
Those suture strips that hold wounds together are also handy, I got the wife to use them on my scalp when I had a fence post drop on my head.o_O
 
After asking a similar question I now keep some haemostatic dressings in my workshop and in van. Not cheap but seems like they are the thing to have if it all goes horribly wrong 😬
I've got some big dressing plasters ideal for all sorts as you can cut them to size?
 
By and large, if you are the kind of person who has first aid kit, dressings, phone and alarm in your workshop, you are in the low risk group for accidents and at very low risk of the major kind of stupid accidents. Not a guarantee and not foolproof, but indicative of attitude.
 
Big stuff, you'll be improvising with the shirt off your back, kitchen or blue paper roll, pallet wrap whatever.
I should buy a Israeli tourniquet / field dressing just in case. Those seem to be good. I carried an army style field dressing when I used to shoot and thankfully never needed it. Just remember to replace them once in a while.
For the small stuff, workshop isopropyl alcohol is a perfectly good antiseptic / degreaser. It hurts like hell so you won't want to put it on a cut to for sterilising and for cleaning around to help a dressing stick it works well.
Superglue doubles up for medical use :)
Betadine is the good cheap antiseptic.
Micropore for everything.
My new favorite : 3M Tegaderm dressings are less than a £1 each from the chemist. I sliced a matchstick wide strip of skin off my knuckle when a glass coffee pot broke in the washing up a fortnight ago and these have kept the wound clean and mobile while it's healed. They are like sterile, sticky pallet wrap but more elastic. The wound stays wet while it heals and it's gruesomely fascinating to watch how your body fixes itself :)
 
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