Thanks....
I wasn't trying to be rude with my earlier comments but sticking a cric needle in someone isn't in any way normal first aid, it's practicing medicine without a license and can KILL someone if done improperly.
Apparently it's becoming the norm to buy battlefield trauma gear on the web and carry it around "just in case" now. Given the odds of the average person coming across a gunshot victim vs someone needing a bandaid it seems kinda silly to me and I do EMS for a living.
Planning for a worst case scenario is great, planning for the much likelier to happen incident is smarter and without coming across too snarky and bitter, if you're out and about and someone in your group needs a needle decomp alongside a trail somewhere, they're probably gonna die if you can't get them to definitive care quickly.
Tacodoc did a great job of trying to explain the realities of trauma in the field at the event up in Hollister last year. He has far more trauma experience than myself or the majority of anyone here and a much more realistic expectation of the outcome.
Having said that, everyone should be carrying and know how to use a decent first aid kit. Put some blood stopping gear in it including a combat tourniquet if you must and save the rest of the space for stuff you're far more likely to need.
John E.
You Reading This: Stop
Don't just stay tangled up in your life.
Out there in some river or cave where you
could have been, some absolute, lonely
dawn may arrive and begin the story
that means what everything is about...
William Stafford 1914-1993