Hello my friends!
Happy Medic Monday, apologies for the delay in these, busy days. This week, we are talking about what goes into a combat lifesaver bag. The next one will be about what is in my CMC (combat medic/corpsman) bag. I will also be doing more posts talking about different tac med equipment. A little more nerdy and indepth, if you will. It's also Cyber Monday, if you're looking to help keeps medics supplied, head over to my amazon wishlist: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/3QM0WCUA0PBK2?ref=wlshare
A combat lifesaver (CLS) is trained at TCCC level 2 and are able to assist the combat medic in providing life saving measures that frees up the combat medic to do more advanced procedures.
SO...what does go into a combat lifesaver bag? Essentially, it's like a big size IFAK.
Alright let's break this down by MARCH PAWS:
M-Massive Bleeding:
Alright, so we have at least 4-6 extra tourniquets, 4-6 hemostatic gauze (look for a post about this soon!), extra trauma bandages, ACE wraps (the purpose is the same as a trauma bandage), a splint (should be rolled if used as a pressure delivery device), for a junctional bleed to use as a pressure delivery device to provide pressure over a packed junctional wound.
A-Airway
Airway is all about making sure the casualty's airway in clear and functioning. For non-functioning airways, the bag should have extra 4-6 nasopharyngeal airways (NPAs), lubricant, and a bag valve mask for mechanical ventilation, helping the casualty breath if they are unable to do this on their own.
R-Respiration:
Respiration deals with injuries to the chest. For penetrating trauma, you need chest seals and to treat tension pneumothorax, you need decompression needles. In a CLS bag, at least 10 extra chest seals and 4-8 decompression needles.
C-Circulation:
In circulation, at the CLS level in terms of supplies, bigger wounds are being taken care of here. Whatever is still bleeding, if it can't be stopped using a tourniquet, needs to be packed with hemostatic and/or regular gauze. Extra gauze, trauma bandages, tape, gauze pads, etc are needed here. Most of these items will also be used in W-Wounds.
H-Head/Hypothermia:
For head injuries, mainly at this level, we are dealing with eye injuries so extra eye shields are needed.
Hypothermia treatment, especially here is mainly improvised. About 10 extra handwarmers (the improvised active method) and 4-6 mylar blankets.
P-Pain and A-Antibiotics:
The P and A part of PAWS deals with pain and antibiotic medications. The US military has premade pill packs, but here in Ukraine, we make them. In a standard pill pack: for pain; paracetamol (acetaminophen/tylenol) 500-650 mgx2, meloxicam (anti-inflammatory) 15 mg x1, and moxifloxacin (antibiotic) 400 mg x1.
The pill pack should be administered for any breaks in the skin/fractures provided the casualty is conscious and able to swallow.
W-Wounds:
The first photo should look familiar because in Wounds we would use a lot of the same items, treat smaller cuts, and burns.
S-Splints:
In Splints, we are dealing with both open and closed fractures so extra splints, cravats, and ace wraps are needed.
And that, my friends is what goes into a CLS bag. You'll want extras like extra gloves, sharpies, duct tape, saran wrap (will explain another time), extra alcohol pads, antibacterial ointment for cuts, a soft stretcher, etc.
Thanks for reading, come back next time for more tac med learning!