"Andy Dingley" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 25 Nov 2005 21:52:56 +0000, Richard Packer wrote:

Burn cream?!?!? Every first aid course I've ever been on says the
only treatment for burns is plenty of water

Try a more modern course. Although older creams did have about as much
use as a good basting, the modern treatments like Water-Jel are well
worth having. Small squeeze bottle for little stuff, big dressings for
bigger problems.

The only things in my first-aid kits that ever get used are small
dressings, microporous tape to hold them on, and cut-off rubber glove
fingers to keep dirt out for the rest of the day. Tweezers and tea-tree
oil for the innumerable splinters.

The rest of the box has the usual stuff, right up to the chainsaw
amputation dressings. Fortunately I've never needed anything bigger than
a triangular bandage.


My first aid/medical kit includes plasters, micropore, fabric tape, sterile
needles, sutures and the normal bandages and stuff. I don't use creams and
ungents but I do have a bottle of topical antibiotic powder which is very
good on anything that gets a bit weepy. Personally I am not too worried
about the sterility of a dressing as if the wound is large enough to require
an emergency, improvised dressing it isprobably severe enough that it will
require A&E treatment where it will be debrided etc anyway. If the patient
lives long enough to worry about infection then the first aider has probably
done a reasonable job already.

The one thing that I swear by, to the extent of usually having one in
pocket, is the military field dressing. These are a large, sterile dressing
that come ready to use and wrapped in a waterproof pouch. I carry one on
the principle that everytime I have come across an incident requiring a kit
I haven't had one but all the time I carry a kit I haven't needed it.
Apparently if you leave hay bales around the house they will stop tigers
from eating you in the night too....

Cheers

Mark