Series: Hurricane Emergency Preparedness First Aid Supplies Made in the USA

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When preparing for an emergency, it is important to have a game plan. Everyone in the house must have a job, such as getting the family pet, or making sure their buddy - the buddy system - is safe.

The buddy system allows each person to be responsible for another person in the home. This way one person is not the only person trying to take care of everything during an emergency.

If you have to evacuate the home, such as during a house fire, have a safe place, outside of the home, in which to meet. Conduct fire drills, like the kids do in school.

During this preparation, it is important to make sure that you have a fully stocked first-aid kit. If you already have one, go through it to ensure that you have everything you need, and discard anything that is expired.

Here are a few mnemonics to remember:

ABC

• Airway
• Is the airway clear?
• Breathing
• Is the person breathing?
• Circulation
• This one can be tricky. Simple ways to assess are to check if the skin is cold, warm, clammy.
• If the person is bleeding, assess the location of the bleeding and stop it or slow it down.
• Check the pulses.

ADeliciousPIE

    This mnemonic is more detailed, but can give you a guide as to the order of doing things, somewhat like the scientific theory.  The example is simplistic, but gives you an idea of how to use it.

• Assess
• Is the person breathing?
• Diagnose
• The person is unconscious, and not breathing.
• Plan
• CPR is necessary to perform.
• Implement
• Perform CPR.
• Evaluate
• Is the person breathing?

1. First Aid Guide

via Amazon 

Top right: Living Ready Pocket Manual - First Aid: Fundamentals for Survival

Bottom: First Aid (Quick Study Health)

During emergencies, a first aid guide helps to take off the stress of remembering what to do. The focus stays on the emergency at hand and finding a resolution.

The manual, pictured above top right, lists items to keep in your first-aid kit, how many and their purpose.

The QuickStudy guide on the bottom has a place to write down important phone numbers, such as physician and poison control. These can be stored in your phone, but it's good to have in one place.

2. Bandages

via Amazon 

Top left: Nexcare Strong Hold Pain Free Removal Bandages

Top middle: Covidien Gauze Sponge

Right: Dealmed Bacitracin Ointment Packets

Bottom left: Covidien Gauze Roll, sterile

Bottom center: Puritan Cotton-Tipped Applicators

A well-stocked first-aid kit is important to have, but more so while preparing for an emergency, such as an impending storm.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has a list on their website of what to include in your first-aid kit.

Purchasing a ready-made kit with all of these items can also make your prep work easier.  Amp-3 Kits are individually packaged in the USA, with as many supplies made in the USA as possible, and created by an ER Physician in the Pacific Northwest.

A first-aid manual, such as the one listed above, will give you reason each one is needed for your kit.  Basic knowledge dictates that gloves, gauze and adhesive patches are used for wound coverage. 

3. Disinfecting Supplies

via Amazon 

Top: Lemyn Organics Medical Grade Hand Sanitizer Gel

Bottom left: SONO Disinfecting Wipes

Bottom Right: via RelyAid Tattoo Supply: Gentell Petroleum Jelly packets

A first-aid kit includes supplies with which to clean wounds.  

Keep cleaning items on hand, such as disinfecting wipes and hand sanitizer.  

The petroleum jelly acts as a skin barrier and soothes irritated skin.

4. Outdoor Repellents

via Amazon

Top right: Farm Raised Candles Store Mosquito Repellent Incense Sticks

Bottom left: Nantucket Spider Bug Repellent

Bottom right: Alba Botanica Sport Sunscreen

When the lights go out, the outdoors may become your new hangout space.  

This means mosquitoes and sunburns.  Okay, maybe that's a summer mantra.  

Nonetheless, if you are stuck outside, protect yourself against those outdoor elements with sunscreen and bug repellent.  You can even invest in mosquito netting.  

The CDC lists a guide on their website on how to avoid mosquito bites.

If you do happen to find yourself in need of anti-itch relief, try some calamine lotion.

5. First Aid Tools

via Amazon 

Top right: BeadExplosion Safety Pins

Center right: Uncle Bill's Sliver Gripper Tweezers

Center left: via Bianco Bandage Shears

A first-aid kit is completed by including the tools needed to tend to emergencies.  

Bandage shears cut bandages and are also used with dressings.

Tweezers remove splinters, glass or dirt from wounds.  They can also be used to drape small items over a wound.

Safety pins secure bandages that are covering wounds.  They can be used to splint an arm by pinning the sleeve to the shirt.  This immobilizes it in a pinch.

Cotton balls help to apply ointments or to clean skin.  They also soak up blood.  

Cotton can also be coated in wax or oil and lit like a candle.  The fire then acts to reduce bacteria on items such as tweezers.

NOTE: It is worth noting that there are some medications to keep in your first-aid kit, such as

• pain reliever
• anti-histamine
• antacid
• anti-diarrheal medications
• aspirin
• cough and cold medicine

Each person in your home has different medical needs.  Keep this in mind as you prepare the kit.  

Conclusion

Finding first aid supplies made in the USA may pose a challenge, but with challenge comes change.  

☝How will YOU be part of the change?

Always remember: Nobody appreciates you and your business more than the people behind the made in the USA name!