LEO trauma kit donations or discounts?

[Valaden]

My Chief is unwilling to “pay $48 for some gauze, and that stuff expires” …. Essentially he’s unwilling to shell out for hemostatic gauze, chest seals and tourniquets to make trauma kits. He’s willing to let us use our own, but won’t replace it if we use it.

The arguments that can be made against this…. shortsightedness…. have been made, quite strongly, but the decision stands.

So.

Does anyone know if an organization willing or able to donate trauma kits or supplies to law enforcement?

Alternately, does anyone know where they can be bought at a significant discount?

I can teach a “stop the bleed” class but would like to have kits to hand out and explain, rather than teaching the class and telling them to go buy it themselves.

Man, I could rant about my organisation for days. I once asked if I would be allowed to wear a personal TQ and was told that's what ambulances are for.

We just had a stabbing at the courthouse and they had to stop the bleeding with brown paper because all we have is an AED and plasters. Hopefully this will change things.

[vicious_cb]

FYI I personally would have no problem using on myself expired combat gauze as long as the vacuum seal was still intact and I knew I wasnt leaving that stuff in a hot car all summer long aka it was on my belt all the time. Not legal or medical advice YMMV

[ZGXtreme]

Just adding as an option as I just ordered one of their kits for our new issued external carriers.

High Threat Innovations
https://www.highthreatinnovations.com/
LE Discount of 20%

I personally went with the Micro 2.0 TraumaPAK ELITE with the QuikClot option.

https://www.highthreatinnovations.co...raumapak-elite

[vicious_cb]

Micro TraumaPAK ELITE (With QuikClot)

1 Micro 2.0 TraumaPAK ELITE Holder in your color choice

1 Tourniquet (Choose from CAT, SAM-XT, SOF-T)

2 Hyfin Vented Chest Seal

1 Battle Wrap or SWAT-T (Orange or Black your choice)

1 QuiKClot rolled gauze

1 Trauma Shears

1 Pair of medical gloves

1 Sharpie

1 SAVE a life card

Your choice of patch

Hmm not really sold on these saran wrap or rubberized style pressure bandages, Id probably swap it out for an Israeli or another type of stretchy trauma dressing. Way more versatile especially with the limited space on a belt kit.

[ZGXtreme]

Hmm not really sold on these saran wrap or rubberized style pressure bandages, Id probably swap it out for an Israeli or another type of stretchy trauma dressing. Way more versatile especially with the limited space on a belt kit.

SWAT Doc didn’t object but… like you, I felt an Israeli may be better and snagged one to replace the Saran Wrap with.

[chuckman]

As a pressure bandage the SWAT-T works well. Anecdotally at least as well as the Israeli.

[Diamondback]

One thing to watch out for, some manufacturer's Quikclots now use chitosan, ground-up shellfish shell frequently crustacean. No big deal for most, but potentially lethal for us with shellfish allergies.

Read your labels and ALWAYS check patient allergies, VERY carefully on both!

Off to go find some NO-chitosan quikclot for the first aid kits here...

[chuckman]

One thing to watch out for, some manufacturer's Quikclots now use chitosan, ground-up shellfish shell frequently crustacean. No big deal for most, but potentially lethal for us with shellfish allergies.

Read your labels and ALWAYS check patient allergies, VERY carefully on both!

Off to go find some NO-chitosan quikclot for the first aid kits here...

There's some data that shows no difference in outcome between using hemostatic vs regular gauze. The best studies we have are animal studies with just better than equivocal results. Kind of "might help, won't hurt." A lot of places are going away from hemostatics because of this and cost.

[1168]

One thing to watch out for, some manufacturer's Quikclots now use chitosan, ground-up shellfish shell frequently crustacean. No big deal for most, but potentially lethal for us with shellfish allergies.

Read your labels and ALWAYS check patient allergies, VERY carefully on both!

Off to go find some NO-chitosan quikclot for the first aid kits here...

Respectfully, I think there are good reasons to temper your stance on this topic. Perhaps when I have more bandwidth I will explain why.

In the meantime, I’d suggest that “kaolin” is a substance that can be read about.

[Diamondback]

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the stuff is trash, I'm just noting that it is contraindicated for some patients and some manufacturers are doing a poor job of noting the allergen. Similar to how there are some dyes they used in MRI/similar imaging 20-odd years ago where they have a fish or shellfish derived ingredient and some that don't, and mom had some complications with her cancer treatment then because despite being specifically told "we'll use the allergen free option" some putz in Supply loaded the cart for her procedure with the regular stuff. As soon as they injected and it started moving through her she reported feeling like her whole body was on fire. Trademarked QC *does* specifically indicate they use kaolin so they're potentially on my Green list, Rhino Rescue is one of the bigger brands I've seen with chitosan so they're on the Red list, I need to check on NAR.

Would you knowingly give a beta-lactamase inhibitor to someone with a penicillin allergy? (BLI's are a penicillin derivative, but you gotta read the label to know.)