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What Goes in a Stop the Bleed Kit
By Ryan Fields-Spack · former fire captain, 20+ years as a paramedic, dad of three ·
Video coming soon.
Most first aid kits are for small hurts. Scraped knees. Splinters. Little cuts. A bleeding control kit is for big bleeding. That is blood that is spurting, pouring, or pooling, and it will not stop with pressure.
I'm Ryan. I'm a former fire captain, with 20+ years as a paramedic, and a dad of three. Here is the kit I showed, what should be in one, and where I keep mine.
The full free printable checklist is at /bleed.
The kit I showed
I showed my Dark Angel Medical small kit. It is a small dedicated bleeding kit. It fits in a car door console, and it is easy to pull out. A full review is coming.
Here is what is in it:
- QuikClot hemostatic gauze
- 2 chest seals, for a wound that goes into the chest, to keep air out
- A compression bandage
- Compressed gauze
- Nitrile gloves
- A Mylar blanket, for warmth and shock
- An eye shield
- Trauma shears
- A tourniquet
I paid for this kit myself. I pay for every kit I review. The reviews are honest and unpaid.
What a kit should have
- A tourniquet, for very bad bleeding on an arm or a leg.
- A pressure bandage.
- Gauze, to pack a deep wound.
- Gloves.
- Shears.
- A marker and a step card, so you can write down the tourniquet time.
It is not a lot of stuff. Every piece has one job.
Two other kits I like are the North American Rescue Public Access Bleeding Control Kit and the MyMedic bleeding control kit. Pick the one that fits where you'll keep it, and make sure it has a genuine tourniquet.
With a bad injury, what the person needs most is a surgeon. Call 911 and get them to the hospital. At the Aurora Theater shooting, police drove critically injured people straight to the hospital, and many survived because they got surgery fast. Don't try to be a hero.
Where it lives
A kit only helps if you can reach it.
- One in the car.
- One in the house, somewhere everyone knows.
- One in a sports bag.
Walk your family to it. In a bad moment, nobody wants to hunt for it.
Which one to buy
Buy a kit with a genuine C-A-T, or another tourniquet on the CoTCCC list. Buy it from the maker or an authorized dealer. Cheap kits online can have fake tourniquets inside.
The class, and the call
Call 911. Use firm pressure. Use a tourniquet for life-threatening bleeding on an arm or a leg, the way Stop the Bleed teaches it.
Take a Stop the Bleed class. They're short, and a lot of them are free.
If someone is bleeding badly, call 911 first.
The short version
- A regular kit is for small hurts. A bleeding control kit is for big bleeding.
- Call 911, use firm pressure, and use a tourniquet for life-threatening bleeding on an arm or a leg.
- Keep one in the car, the house, and a sports bag. Walk your family to it.
- Buy a genuine C-A-T, or another CoTCCC-listed tourniquet, from the maker or an authorized dealer.
- Take a Stop the Bleed class.
- Don't try to be a hero.
I hope you never need it.
The full free printable checklist is at /bleed.