Making an IFAK trauma kit on a budget

I recently read a book called, "In the Blood: How Two Outsiders Solved a Centuries-Old Medical Mystery and Took On the US Army" by Charles Barber. It's the story of how the hemostatic bandage was created, and the struggles of the inventors to get it adopted by the U.S. Army. It's a fascinating read. Unfortunately, it left me with a profound sense of unease. I've always carried a basic "boo-boo" kit in the car, but nothing for a really traumatic injury situation, and I thought that I should rectify that situation ASAP.

The more I looked at various pre-packaged kits, the more unhappy I got. Most didn't seem to cover what I felt made up a good kit, and those that did, ran to hundreds of dollars.

I wanted a kit that covered gunshot wounds or the type of trauma one would get in a bad car accident. Basically, a 'keep you or someone else alive until the professionals show up' kit. So I set about creating a cheap basic IFAK (Individual First Aid Kit), though this would properly be called a trauma kit. 70% of Americans call 911 at least once in their lives, and a kit like this really should be something that people should have close access to.

I will be the first to say that this isn't the sort of thing that you want to go cheap on. Having said that, let's go cheap on it. The reasoning being, a substandard kit is better than no kit at all. One should also take training classes in how to use such a kit.

Cheap means Chinese, and you can't get much cheaper than TEMU. Everything in this kit comes from TEMU, and I set up two kits, one for myself and another for my wife to carry in our cars. If they end up being good quality, I may build more kits for the house and work, and add one or two more items.

Let's start off with the basics.

A pre-made kit, and this is actually a pretty decent setup. Included in the kit is a CAT gen 7 type tourniquet, shears, povidone iodine wipes, alcohol wipes, q-tips, medical tape, an Ace bandage, an Israeli style combat dressing, triangular bandage, SAM type splint, tweezers, CPR mask, antiseptic wipes, safety pins, and an emergency mylar blanket.

...and I added a tourniquet holder to put on the outside of the kit. The tourniquet holder will hold the shears and tourniquet, which you want to be able to access immediately. It also frees up some room inside the kit for add-ons.

Having said that, the tourniquet and shears are the two weakest links in this kit. Most Chinese made tourniquets are airsoft replica type items, and the first ones were introduced as toys, for airsofters, in 2003. They have been known to fail when used for real. Many of the tourniquets on TEMU probably fall into this category. Likely the ones in this kit do as well. The shears aren't bad, but there's better options. Like these.

Knockoff Leatherman Raptor Rescue Shears and a CAT type tourniquet. It appears to be based on the CAT gen 6 strap, with a Recon Medical style gen 4 aluminum windlass, with CAT 7 construction methods (sonic welded seams). I can't find an exact brand name equivalent, but it appears to be a legit medical tool and not an airsoft toy. The shears have a built-in ring cutter, glass breaker, oxygen tank wrench, belt clip, and fold down compactly.

I also added a Kaolin hemostatic gauze (Quickclot Combat Gauze equivalent) and some chest seals as my first additions, rather than replacements, in the kit. Not pictured are the unvented seals I also added.

The final two items are a pulse and blood oxygen fingertip reader (AAA batteries not included), and an aluminum bodied rechargeable 30 LED flashlight with kickstand mounting hole, tripod mount, bottle opener, and keychain clip.

$18.27 IFAK kit
$3.88 tourniquet holder
$4.98 tourniquet
$12.49 medical shears
$6.87 Hemostatic bandage
$3.14 chest seals (x2)
$1.37 flashlight
$3.44 pulse oximeter

$57.58 for one kit, x2 equals
$115.16
Minus a $30 off coupon equals
$85.16, or $48.52 per kit.

FYI, Temu is generous with the coupons for new users, and the prices above are subject to change without notice.

Each kit cost the equivalent of two packs of Quikclot, or both kits together, slightly cheaper than one pair of Leatherman Raptor Rescue Shears. The one good kit that I found that had a similar load out was $160, and was missing the chest seals and SAM brace, and didn't include the Raptor shears or a pulse oximeter.

Building these two kits with name brand equivalents would have cost about $200 per kit, if not more.

I will post links as I review the kit. I get no kickback from doing so, nor am I a member of TEMU's affiliate program. With that out of the way, let's talk about TEMU itself, and how it manages to keep it's prices so low, and exactly what it is.

It's an app that purports to connect Chinese businesses directly to American consumers. It's a subsidiary of China's Amazon equivalent, and seeks to take market share from Amazon. It's actually losing millions of dollars in that effort. Some of that is from subsidizing some of the items. Most of it is money lost from shipping. TEMU does not charge any shipping fees, and offers a $5 credit if things don't arrive within the shipping estimate window. It also takes advantage of the $800 limit before tariffs are imposed. Temu pressures it's suppliers to allow discounts, and the suppliers have no control over the amount of the discount, resulting in some of them barely breaking even or actually losing money. Also, there is no ethical oversight. Some of TEMU's items could come from the Muslim Uyghur re-education camps, and we wouldn't know, because the manufacturers are opaque to us in the U.S. In case you haven't paid any attention to that situation, it's basically slave labor in concentration camps. TEMU claims to follow all the U.S. ethical standards, but there's no actual oversight ensuring that it does. Just some food for thought.

If you've used Wish, and think it's basically the same thing, that's not an accurate statement. The items from TEMU are generally quite good quality, and customers leave reviews, so you generally have a decent idea of what you will wind up with.

I think I've put together a decent basic IFAK that will cover most traumatic injury situations. Let me know what you think.

Edit: Another point to consider is that Amazon is also flooded with fakes, some even masquerading as legit, to the point where most EMTs and preppers won't buy survival gear off the site, and only order from reputable websites.

 

I've reconsidered the kit. It's final form is this:
Pouch
2 tourniquet holders (attached) with shears and permanent marker. 2 C-A-T gen.7 style tourniquets.

Inside the pouch:
(1) hemostatic gauze
(2) compressed Z-Fold gauze
(1) 3" x 3" gauze pad
(1) 4" x 4" gauze pad
(1) 5" x 9" abdominal gauze pad
(3) Tegaderm Film 2-3/8" x 2-3/4"
(1) 2" medical adhesive tape 15'
(2) vented 6" chest seals
(2) eye wound pads
(1) 3" rolled gauze
(1) 4" combat trauma bandage (I opened one of these up to see what the quality was like, and was pleasantly surprised. Sometimes with these cheap bandages, they will shrink down to about an inch wide when pulled tight. This one barely lost any width at all).
(The above is vacuum sealed in a pouch with a card listing the contents)
Triangle bandage with safety pins
Splint
ACE type compression bandage w/Velcro
Nasalphangeal airway tube
CPR mask
Alcohol and iodine wipes
Shears
Compact area flood light w/strobe
Penlight
Emergency blanket
Tweezers

Total cost per kit is just under $70. Somewhat equivalent premade kits are around $300-$400. Those kits have a few things I don't include, and vice versa. My kit doesn't have eye shields or pneumothorax needles. Their kits typically don't have flashlights, ace bandages or splints.

I've started receiving various items, and will add my thoughts on them as they arrive. First, the IFAK kit itself. It's worth the cost, if only for the pouch itself, which is sturdy and well made. The included shears, despite looking rather dinky, cut though a penny with a little effort. The tourniquet, while appearing to be cheaply made, does work. This would be a case of 'better than nothing,' but not something I would feel confident about. Unfortunately, this probably means the Israeli bandage included in the kit is probably also sub-par, though I have not opened that yet. The rest of the items seem to be of decent quality. HB13194

If one wants a better pouch (does not contain kit), I recommend HE15881. This is the standard pouch seen on most high quality pre-made IFAK kits with the tear-away hook and loop backing pad for rapid deployment, and the fold out zip up mesh pouch that acts as a divider.

The tourniquet holder is as well made as the IFAK pouch, and has elastic loops on each side to hold a sharpie marker, as well as a spot towards the back of the pouch to put shears in. I put the shears that were in the IFAK kit there, because, why not? They are decent shears, if not nearly as robust as the Leatherman knockoffs. ...and they fit in the tourniquet pouch, unlike the raptors. The raptor knockoff I just attached to one of the MOLLE webbing straps going across the front of the IFAK. It, like the tourniquet, needs to be readily and quickly accessible.

The medical shears, aka 'Leatherman Raptor Rescue' clone, is sturdy and well made, and effortlessly cut a penny into quarters. This is one of the 'very good' purchases. Highly recommended. ED06375

Having taken a good long look at the pictures of the included tourniquet in the IFAK kit above, I looked for an alternative tourniquet. This is another of the really good purchases. It isn't exactly like the pictures, which show a gen 6 type tourniquet. Instead, it's a carbon copy of a gen 7 CAT tourniquet, with the exception that the windlass is made of aluminum, rather than nylon. It is very well made. Highly recommended. FP01638

Hemostatic bandage. Not much to say here. This is impregnated with kaolin clay, like the Quikclot combat gauze, and has a strip down the center that shows up on x-rays and stuff just like the brand name version. Same size and length as the military/LEO versions. Another very good purchase, provided it works as intended. TV14358

Pulse oximeter. I ordered two. One works, the other got crushed a bit in shipping and the screen cracked, and it won't turn on. Doesn't seem to be very well built, as far as these things go. I will be looking for an alternative for this product. LR05050

Flashlight. This is a very small form factor 30 LED flashlight. Has high, low, and strobe functions. Charges via the included type C USB cable. When charging, has a red indicator light that turns green when fully charged. Aluminum waterproof housing, with bottle opener, clip, magnet, and stand. For under $2, a very good purchase, though perhaps not the best for this kind of kit. A small penlight form factor is the better recommendation for these as you can put it in your mouth to direct the beam where you want it. Not so much with this flashlight. HQ07285

While a great addition to the kit, I would also recommend adding a penlight style flashlight, which is aluminum bodied as well, with a steel clip, and takes two AAA batteries. I accidentally ran mine through the washer and dryer with a load of laundry, and it still works. YL03158

Still waiting on the other shipments.

In lieu of links, I'm just going to add the number. Copy/paste the number into the TEMU search bar to bring up the product.

IFAK kit: HB13194 recommended, with reservations, throw away the tourniquet
Better pouch (does not contain kit): HE15881 recommended
tourniquet holder: HC09109 recommended
Tourniquet: FP01638 highly recommended
medical shears: ED06375 highly recommended
Hemostatic bandage: TV14358 recommended, with the caveat that it has not been tested
Chest seals: NE11243
Flashlight: YL03158 very highly recommended
Flashlight: HQ07285 highly recommended, with reservations
Pulse oximeter: LR05050 not recommended
Compressed Z-Fold gauze: FX14753
Nasopharyngeal Tube (7mm) w/lubricating jelly: CU15240
Here's the version w/ multiple sizes, but I don't know if it comes with lubricant: BH18483 (also, 6.5mm or size 28 is the standard size the military uses and is the standard size included in pre-made packs that contain NTA tubes. Medical documentation indicates most adult women fit a size 6, and most adult men fit a size 6.5)

 

I do have bandage type sutures in my 'boo boo' kit, but derma bond would probably be a good addition. If TEMU had it, which they don't, I don't know as I would trust it. That would be a stateside purchase, I think.

 

Yeah, that's a very good point. The purpose of this/my kit is to stop/control catastrophic bleeding. The thermal blanket is there to help keep the patient (presumably the user of the kit) warm. If a person's body temperature drops below 95°F, they lose the ability to form clots. Everything in the kit is geared towards keeping the red stuff inside the body. There's a hundred other things I could add to make it a full-fledged medical kit to cover almost any scenario, but at the end of the day, I just want to be able to find what I need quickly, and use it. Thankfully, I live in a country with fairly rapid emergency response time, and they carry all that extra stuff that falls under the "nice to have" sub-set.

Would I like to have a full-fledged surgery and dental kit for a complete societal breakdown situation, sure, but the chances of needing something like that is pretty slim, at least in the near future, and I live in a major city, not rural Montana.

Edit: anyone know of a pocket booklet/reference that covers basic first aid to include in the kit? I did some looking but didn't really find anything.

 

Added Z-Fold compressed gauze to replace or supplement the rolled gauze included in the kit, and added nasopharyngeal tubes with lubricating jelly.

That covers all the ABC's of the kit, as far as I'm concerned.

In hindsight, it might have been cheaper to just part out the kit and buy a better bag.

 

I'm going to wait and see what, if any, instructional materials come with the kits, but this appears to be the best solution for the type of booklet I am looking for, and at $1 each, I'll pick up a few. Shipping is a killer though.

 

I hope that I'll never need to use any of that on myself or one of my loved ones. I also pray that I'll be at the right place and time if my wife or I ever need to use it on someone else.

 

I'm not exactly sure what you meant by posting these, but I'll roll with it. It's good info for this kind of thread. They are also some of the best put together kits I've seen so far.

The top kit is an actual military style IFAK, an 'Individual First Aid Kit.' This is what a person ought to carry on themselves at all times when out and about, and when on military deployment, one would. Probably contains shears, tourniquet, Israeli bandage, chest seal, burn bandage and nasopharyngeal tube at minimum. At least, that's what the standard USMC kit contains. The individual carrying this would probably have 3 or 4 additional tourniquets attached to various pieces of gear as well.

The second kit down is more like what I'm putting together, also an IFAK, but more properly, a trauma kit. This is what you keep in your car or desk. Readily available, but not generally kept on your person at all times. Contains a bit more than the top kit, but still considered a single individual's kit. I plan to eventually put together something like the top kit, that can be stowed in a cargo pant's pocket, backpack, or purse.
Here's the link to that second kit:
https://scherberusa.com/products/sc...rniquet-hyfin-vent-chest-seal-israeli-bandage
It's a nearly 'perfect' kit, and virtually identical to the one I'm building, except it has all the quality name brand stuff, rather than the unknown quality of the stuff I ordered. It's also $120 (not including a 10% gov't/first responder employee discount) at the time of this posting, which isn't a bad price for what you get. I spent about that much to put together 2 off brand kits. The main difference is the hemostatic gauze. This kit has a 4" x 4" piece, whereas the kit I have has a 3" x 59" piece, which is generally viewed as police/military level, not EMT. For someone with a less restrictive budget, I would recommend this kit, adding only the TEMU shears and hemostatic gauze for a top quality setup.

The third kit is what an emergency responder would likely keep in their car, just in case, or this would be a kit kept at a remote job site by the foreman. Many State and Federal offices are required to have this level of kit in the building to supplement whatever first responders bring with them. For the ordinary civilian, this would be the 'family or group' kit, or an 'EMT in a bag' kit for a SHTF situation. The top two kits can be used with a minimum of medical training. This bottom kit can as well, but is designed to address the wounds of multiple victims, and would be best put to use by a trained EMT or military corpsman.

 

Added some reviews and recommendations. See second post in this thread. Be aware that I have not yet received everything going into the kit.

 

After looking into the pros and cons of both, liquid bandaid seems to be the more recommended product, as it's breathable, and derma bond is not. Neither product have a place in a kit like this, though if a person carries a first aid kit, they definitely have a place there.

This kit is designed around the MARCH protocol, which has replaced the ABC (airway, breathing, circulation) protocol I was trained in, years ago. With MARCH protocol, you deal with Massive hemorrhage first, then check the Airway, then check Respiration, Circulation, and treat for Hypothermia. If the body temperature drops below 95°F, you are no longer capable of forming blood clots, which is why all IFAK kits come with an emergency blanket.

 

To recap, while it's tempting to put everything but the kitchen sink in one's IFAK, it's best to keep it moderately simple, so you aren't digging around trying to find what you need.

1 pouch
2 CAT tourniquets w/holders
2 to 4 vented chest seals
Hemostatic gauze
Z fold gauze
Ace bandage or self stick bandage
Israeli bandage
Triangle bandage w/safety pins
Abdominal gauze patch
Medical tape
Duct tape
Extra rolls of gauze and gauze patches
Tweezers
Shears
Several pairs of medical gloves
Penlight (with new batteries packaged separately)
Emergency blanket

All the gauzes and chest seals ought to be vacuum sealed into their own pouch. Cut it open, and you have all your bleeding control stuff in one place. Tourniquets should be on the outside of the pouch. If you need one, you need it immediately. 20-30 seconds of opening the pouch to dig one out might make the difference between survival and death. An arterial bleed can kill in minutes, and it takes about 30 seconds to apply a tourniquet.
Extras that are very nice to have in the kit, but are not really primary IFAK necessities.

Iodine wipes
Alcohol wipes
Nasalphangeal tube w/lube
Extra Israeli bandages
Extra tourniquets (ideally, you should have enough for each extremity, so 4 total)
Splint
EpiPen
eye cover
Hydrogel bandages for burns
A couple chemical lights

You might see anecdotal suggestions to keep a few tampons in your kit for plugging holes. Don't do it. They aren't designed to absorb much blood. If you see bright red pouring out of a hole, you want to take the Z-Fold gauze and start packing it into the hole with your finger. That's what it's there for. FYI, even a ripped up T-shirt works better than a tampon.