Shop First Aid?

K

kbright

Joined
Jun 27, 2004
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The legality of performing first aid beyond emergency situations is being discussed in another thread. But reading that thread reminds us that accidents happen. What common and uncommon materials and procedures should we have and know how to use in our workshops?

I keep bandaids pinned to the wall over my bench, and I have a packaged first aid kit with a variety of bandages, gauze, ointments, and tape. I don't have suture material, but I do have dental floss and a needle. Not sure how I would use CA glue to close a wound without gluing both hands and my nose together.

We see lots of new knifemakers joining this forum and just starting to collect and use power tools. A trip to the ER during a Covid surge is not a good idea unless you are deeply injured. So how do we learn how to fix a serious cut? What would you do if you cut off a finger? Anyone ever have long hair or a beard caught in rotating machinery?
 
When I was a senior in high school, I went to school half a day and then got out to go to work. I worked at a machine shop. I had long hair then and would put it in a ponytail thinking that it was safe that way. One day I was running a high torque drill press and I moved my head too fast and the end of my ponytail got caught on the drill bit and the drill press started reeling me in.
Praise The Lord that I shut the drill press off in time to save my butt. I have real thick hair so it probably would have broke my neck had I not shut it off in time.
I told my boss, who happened to see the whole thing, that I needed to go get a haircut. I never wore long hair again after that day.:)
 
As I do this fulltime everyday for a living, it’s especially important to me.

About Once a year I get a cut deep enough to require 4-5 stitches, a laceration. Each time I’ve been immediately able to wrap it and tape it up tight. And able to get to urgent care within an hour for stitches

it’s happened three times...the first I actually cut myself with a knife during the act of cutting something. The other two times I sliced myself simply by handling my knives. All required 4-5 stitches.

I haven’t really thought much beyond this
 
How would you use CA glue to close a wound?
Nitrile gloves don't stick, so I guess you could smear CA glue across a wound with gloves and hold it until it cures. Is there a better method?
 
so....as a surgeon, let me give you my perspective here. You CAN close many wounds with super glue...but the hard part is not doing it but knowing WHEN to do it, and when to get help !

Best way requires a helper - clean wound well, push edges together and Quickly run a bead of superglue along the wound and along both sides of the wound. Either you hold and helper glues, or vice versa, because if you try to do it all yourself you will often glue yourself to the wound.
then, cross the wound with some Steri Strips, and put some superglue on top of those.

if the wound is deep, or keeps bleeding when you push it together, or you see a tendon or bone, or if you have numbness ....do NOT do it yourself! Get professional help



Bill
 
The closure device linked above is a "fancy" Steri-Strip device but will work well for clean lacerations, especially if you can use both of your hands....
 
Drew Riley said:
I meant to mention these in the other thread, but it was closed. Anybody have any experience with the "zip-stitch" style of sutures?

https://www.amazon.com/Clozex-Emerg...t=&hvlocphy=9012237&hvtargid=pla-825111346460

Seem like a pretty good option for clean slices that aren't gushing too bad.
Click to expand...

I've seen similar stitches even used by professionals, but I guess it depends on the cut size and position.

I need to think on some medical supplies for the shop, small cuts got the denatured alchohol and paper towel/tape treatment until now.

Hopefully no stiches and serious injuries will take place, but one should be prepared.

Definetly don't want to get stitched once a year (I'd like to think that I already had my share of stitching).
 
Another good thing to have in the shop is a tourniquet, you know...for when the stitching job goes south. just kidding but I have one in the shop, one in the truck and one on the ATV, for when I'm chain sawing deep in the woods.

The ones I have are put on one handed.
 
Nice reliable LED flashlight in the FA kit.

Set a schedule for a yearly review, renew replace expire items.
 
There are very few non-life threatening lacerations that cannot be controlled by direct pressure.

Put pressure directly on the wound until the bleeding stops, or slows down significantly. Then bandage the wound closed.
If it continues to bleed pile up some gauze directly over the wound, then tie a bandage over the wound TIGHT, with the knot directly over the wound.
Then go to the damn hospital to get it cleaned and stitched up, and a round of antibiotics if necessary.

Don't be a tough guy and stitch yourself, or use super glue. Suck it up and go to the Dr.

"Oh but the hospital is so far away" it's so expensive" "it's so embarrassing" blah blah blah.
Good.
It'll make you more careful in the future.

Get some first-aid training. Most fire departments (even the rural volunteer ones) give first-aid and CPR classes. A lot of the time they're free!

Oh and yes, last time I stabbed myself, this is exactly what I did. My lady drive me the hour and a half to the nearest hospital. It was embarrassing and expensive.
 
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Here is what I recommend for a knife shop first aid kit:
Put all the below in zip-lock bags by use/need category - bandaids and neosporin together, gauze, pads, and tape together, etc.
Everything should be bagged as much as possible. It is easy to dump the box out and grab the right bag in a hurry. It also keeps the other items items clean.
Place all items in a tightly closed clear storage bin. Place on a visible shelf or table near the door. Mark the box FIRST AID and/or put a sign near the box saying the same. Everyone should know where the box is.

First Aid booklet
Rubber gloves
Disposable masks
A dozen paper towels separated and folded up or, a partial roll
Hand sanitizer
Two or three 8oz bottles of water (to wash off a dirty wound or burn)

Gauze pads in 2", 3", and 4"
Roller gauze in 2" and 3"
3/4" and 1" Bandaids in a good quantity
Large bandaids - 2X3"
Neosporin
Steri-strips or similar butterfly closures
Wound cleaner pads - povidone-iodine or benzalkonium chloride (both are nice to have)
3" Ace bandage
Triangular bandage and a plastic splint
Medical tape rolls in 1" and 2" width
Eye wash bottle of saline or similar solution
Tweezers, a simple scalpel with #11 blade, scissors, etc. (you can buy a pretty darn good minor surgery kit with all the tweezers and stuff for first aid online for $15.)
Nice to have - aspirin/tylenol/naproxen, throat lozenges, eye drops, antacids, other personal meds, ammonia inhalant snapsules, flashlight, zip-lock bags, small bag of baking soda (for neutralizing acid splashes)

Also, take your phone with you when you go to the shop. If you live with someone, tell them you are out in the shop.
 
I have had two injuries - the first was a chisel breaking through a piece of cracked wood and hitting a nerve in my palm - assuming by the tingling/electroshock. The wound itself required one stitch, deep, but nothing major. I was going to drive to the hospital to have the nerve checked (was losing feeling in two fingers), but went to tell my grandfather (neighbor) first. He went for a towel, and while he was gone I passed out on his staircase, giving myself a decent concussion (face first down the stairs, hit the last edge). I remember waking up briefly and the ambulance arriving, the rest I heard from others. The second injury was when I hit 3 fingers on a spinning planer. I was lucky to walk away will all of my fingers and still have nightmares about the accident sometimes.

In my opinion, what is important is stuff that will save your life - If I need a bandaid, I can go get it. If I cut an artery with an angle grinder, I need a tourniquet right then and there. I have looked for a serious injury/laceration/bleeding kit (along with additional training) quite a lot, but am yet to find anything in Europe. Tips are welcome.

This thread got me to start looking for some kit and training again, so thanks!
 
Mark van Elteren said:
I have had two injuries - the first was a chisel breaking through a piece of cracked wood and hitting a nerve in my palm - assuming by the tingling/electroshock. The wound itself required one stitch, deep, but nothing major. I was going to drive to the hospital to have the nerve checked (was losing feeling in two fingers), but went to tell my grandfather (neighbor) first. He went for a towel, and while he was gone I passed out on his staircase, giving myself a decent concussion (face first down the stairs, hit the last edge). I remember waking up briefly and the ambulance arriving, the rest I heard from others. The second injury was when I hit 3 fingers on a spinning planer. I was lucky to walk away will all of my fingers and still have nightmares about the accident sometimes.

In my opinion, what is important is stuff that will save your life - If I need a bandaid, I can go get it. If I cut an artery with an angle grinder, I need a tourniquet right then and there. I have looked for a serious injury/laceration/bleeding kit (along with additional training) quite a lot, but am yet to find anything in Europe. Tips are welcome.

This thread got me to start looking for some kit and training again, so thanks!
Click to expand...

I had a high-torque drill press catch my ponytail and pull me into it. Luckily I hit the off switch in time. It took a couple of minutes to unravel my hair from the drill bit. That was scary!
 
Mark

plenty of the "tactical" suppliers sell "1 hand use" tourniquets, and even pants and shirts with tourniquets built in...maybe overkill, but it's an idea.

Another thing you can get on Amazon is Quik Clot - VERY useful in a severe hemorrhage, so hopefully you will never need it!

also, as I believe Cushing mentioned somewhere, you can use a blood pressure cuff as a tourniquet - just pump it up to 250

Bill
 
Two thoughts on this:
  1. Don't have anything you aren't trained to use. (This should encourage you to get real training, not skip buying a first aid kit...)
  2. Be very cautious about buying life-saving supplies on Amazon. I have seen multiple credible reports of fakes there (which probably shouldn't surprise knife people). You don't want to find out that your one-hand combat tourniquet doesn't really work correctly the first time you need it.
-Tyson
 
Soooo on the topic of quick clot...

We in the emergency medical field (at least at the EMT level) have been warned off of the quick clotting agents. For two reasons first was for the exothermic reactions that some agents have, which can lead to more tissue damage
The second is that the powder form gets swept into the blood stream and then clots, leading to massive tissue loss further away from the wound site.
Some say that the quick clot impregnated gauze is ok to use, but others say it's all no good.
I work for a government agency out in the boonies in west texas and we don't carry any of that kind of stuff. Our protocols for uncontrolled bleeding call for pressure dressings and tourniquets, then transport to definitive care. 1 & 1/2 hour transport time...
 
It’s great that people are mentioning tourniquets a lot more nowadays. I remember back in the day they were a last resort because of the fear of losing the limb or long term tissue and nerve damage. It’s great to see people mention them a lot more nowadays and especially in this thread.

One of the issues we found when putting them in our save bags and trauma kits were people weren’t practicing with them.
It’s a good idea to practice applying them to yourself and those close to you and having them practice on you as well. When an arterial bleed starts, that’s a bad time to realize you’re not familiar with your own equipment.
 
Here's a thought about duct tape.

It can make a decent pressure dressing in a pinch.

But here's the twist.

Use it inside out.

Wrap it around and around inside out, the tape will stick to itself and not the dressings or the body.
 
Thanks for the tips guys! I will do my best to find a good trauma kit, and especially the training to use it if I ever need to.

Also, sorry for the rambling about my injuries. Just thought I would share, if people hear about injury mechanisms, they are more likely to avoid them.
 
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