Life & Safety with Jimmy Rios
Welcome to Life & Safety with Jimmy Rios! Get ready to dive into a world where safety meets storytelling! Drawing from his rich background as a former firefighter, EMT and safety expert, Jimmy brings you straight into the heart of safety and emergency preparedness. Episodes feature easy-to-understand tips, real-life stories, and interviews with experts, all designed to help you protect yourself, your business, and those you care about.
Whether it's advice on navigating everyday safety challenges or insights into the latest in health and safety trends, let this podcast educate and entertain you. Join Jimmy and level-up your safety knowledge with engaging discussions that could one day save a life.
Life & Safety with Jimmy Rios
First Aid Kits 101: Building the Perfect Kit for Every Situation
Not all first aid kits are created equal, and if you’ve ever wondered what should go into yours, this episode has you covered! We’re breaking down everything you need to know to assemble the perfect kit for your home, car, or next adventure. From avoiding cheap kits that seem too good to be true (spoiler: they probably are!) to choosing trusted brands like North American Rescue, we’ll guide you through the do’s and don’ts of first aid prep.
But we're not done yet -- first aid kits aren’t one-size-fits-all. Whether you’re traveling with kids, dealing with allergies, or just want peace of mind on the road, we’ll show you how to customize your supplies to fit your unique needs. We're also sharing some personal stories, and tips on organizing your kits to avoid frustration later.
Whether you’re just starting out with a “boo-boo and ouchie” kit or looking to upgrade to something more robust, this episode will help you feel ready for life’s little (or not-so-little) emergencies. Tune in, and let’s get your gear dialed!
Life Safety Associates specializes in emergency response training for corporate ERT Teams. We help businesses create competent and confident first responders who are ready to handle unexpected emergencies. For more information you find us @lifesafetyassoc or email@lifesafety.com.
Hey, what's happening. It's your boy Jimmy and your girl Megs, with another Life and Safety podcast
Jimmy:So we're going to be talking about starting off our year right, getting our bags right, getting our stuff gear or gear right. So we're talking about emergency bags, emergency gear. Tonight or today, we get this question a lot in class. You know where's a good place we should buy stuff. What should we be looking for? And that's really a loaded question. First off, I want to start off with you're going to get what you pay for. If you go on Amazon or Temu and you buy, you know, a $20 kit that has 150 pieces of medical stuff in there, odds are, you're not going to get very good quality stuff. Yeah Right, you know. So you usually get your bang for your buck, okay. So reputable places North American Rescue they're the folks that make cat tourniquets. They sell a lot of really good pre-pack stuff. They actually just had a sale. They have all these holiday sales. During Thanksgiving they had a I believe it was a T-FAC Thanksgiving First Aid Kit.
Megan:That's funny.
Jimmy:Yeah, and it had just a bunch of where it was like after first aid or something like that. It was really fun, it was very clever and really good stuff there. But what I would tell you and recommend is start with at home. Let's start at a home first aid kit. You can buy a first aid kit for like boo-boos and ouchies and scrapes and those kind of things everywhere. Insert that box store there, right, you can buy that and that's going to range anything from a hard plastic.
Jimmy:This is a first aid kit to just buying a box of band-aids. Yeah, right, so it depends on your needs and in your level of training. And what do you think's going to happen? You know, like when it was just jenny and I was the main threat to get hurt. So I always kind of, you know, had larger Band-Aids and had more rolled gauze and had more medical tape and things like that around the house.
Jimmy:When we had the kids we got littler Band-Aids and then we started getting character Band-Aids and things like that for the kids and of course we always had the big Band-Aids for me, right. And then we started traveling with the kids pretty early on and we started taking things like Benadryl, like little kid Benadryl, right, because we still didn't know if the kids had allergic reactions or not, especially Jameson, he was our first. So you always kind of fret over the first one the most because you just don't know what you're doing. And then Band-Aids, and then we had medical tape and we had rolled gauze and things like that. I'm like, so what could happen, right? And then we figured we needed something for the car. And when you buy a car first aid kit something to think about is how you're going to store it and where you're going to keep it in your car, right.
Jimmy:So the first one for Jenny's car, because she transported the kids most.
Jimmy:it was the largest car she had, a I guess lack of a better word like a little suitcase thing, a little briefcase medical bag, medical kit plastic, a little suitcase thing, a little briefcase, medical bag, medical kit plastic, and the thing just slid all over the back cargo area of her car and it was just a mess. It was always in the way. It was just not the business. So I think that thing lasted like two weeks before Jenny got annoyed with it and took it out and she ended up getting a little plastic a little bigger than a soap dish first aid kit from someplace. I don't remember where it was from, but it was awesome. It had a couple different sized Band-Aids in it, it had a little like antibiotic ointment in it, it had a little burn cream in it and I think it had some Tylenol in. It had a little like antibiotic ointment in. It, had a little burn cream in it and I think it had some Tylenol in it and some aspirin. Maybe it was perfect. You know, if the kids scraped themselves or something like that at the park, it was bandaid, little antibiotic, open, little blow, and we just added to it. We just added to it Like we need more or less go for it.
Jimmy:I I say the biggest thing for me is always like, will you carry it in? What do you have right? Um, now that's kind of, you know, just a basic boo-boo ouchy kit. I have a fanny pack, much more robust medical kit that I obviously have because different level of training and that's for me. If I pull over and decide to help somebody on the side of the road, I'm going to have more trauma stuff. I'm going to have more. You know, I have a tourniquet and I have more gauze. I have bigger, more stuff because I'm willing to help with that. Gloves and Jenny's little box I think she had gloves in that too, but I don't remember.
Megan:I think a good point is that, like, have what you know how to use. Like, if you have this big old, like you know, I've seen some kits advertised that are, like you know, like 500 bucks and it's like the size of a small suitcase and it has, like you know, like it's like 400 pieces of you know such and such, and it has this and this and this and this, and it's like yeah, but do you know how to use everything that's in your kit? Like, if there is an emergency, do you? A, are you going to be able to find it in your kit? And, b, if you do, do you know how to use it? Because if you have a bunch of stuff that's just going to, like, sit there unused, why, why bother, you know, toting that around?
Jimmy:Absolutely, absolutely. Or you get yourself in trouble with if you don't know how to use it, like I've get yourself in trouble with if you don't know how to use it. Like I've actually seen some of our clients buy those big 5 000 piece metal bags as it looks cool and it's comes with, you know, some kind of military backpack looking thing and they're like I can carry this and it's really cool in an emergency, but that's like a scalpel in it. You know, like what are you going to do with a scalpel? What are you?
Megan:cutting open. What are we doing here?
Jimmy:Or it has chest tubes, oh yeah. And you're like you're going to put a chest tube in it or a crikey kit. You're not going to cut somebody's throat open and put a tube in that. How do they even sell this legally? It's kind of interesting. So stuff like that tube in there, you know, I'm like how do they even sell this legally? It's kind of interesting, you know.
Jimmy:So like stuff like that's in there to megan's point don't I'm not saying, don't buy those things, but unless you're trained to use those things um.
Megan:and if you buy the kit because it looks cool, good for you, but don't use the crank kit that's in there?
Megan:maybe replace it with some extra band-aids or something yeah, yeah, yeah, um.
Jimmy:So again, think of this space. Like what do you drive? What do you? Where are you gonna store it at home? You know if you're gonna keep it in your trunk versus you keep it in your glove box, you know, and, and that's kind of what we thought about, like with j, with Jenny's first aid kit in her car, it went from her cargo space in the back of her SUV to her glove box.
Jimmy:And that was perfect and when we went camping or something like that, I always take my bag out of my car because it had more of the trauma stuff and the things that I can use. It had blood pressure cuff in it and things of that nature. So start there, Buy a pre-made one, what you think you need and then add to it. And when you add to it, make sure again you're you're. And secondly, buy quality stuff. A lot of times like there's pressure dressings, for instance the emergency dressing. I really recommend Age bandages, really recommend those. North American Rescue makes a pressure bandage. That's really nice, Very simple to use. Those are just a couple that are out there. There's lots of others and I'm sure I'm missing lots of really good ones out there. But practice with them. Don't just be like, oh I saw that really cool on a YouTube video or Jimmy mentioned that on a podcast, and you go and you buy that. Practice with it, Buy two.
Megan:Yeah, that's what I was going to say. Especially if it's like a sterile thing, buy one, practice with it and then keep one in the packaging. Yes, so that you know, and like with tourniquets, the more that you practice with them and use them, the more likely they are to fail when you need them.
Jimmy:Absolutely, absolutely so. I have a training one when you need them, absolutely, absolutely so. I have a training one, like we have a training one in the house and then we have real ones in the cars, you know. So think about that again. Level of training, quality gear, quality gear you know, if you look at Amazon and it's $6 versus the $35 one, that $30 could cost you your life, so to speak.
Jimmy:I know that everybody's in different situations, but remember, this is going to go on your loved one and you know that $30, you don't want to say man, I wish I would have spent that 30 bucks. You know, because there are fake air quote, fake tourniquets out there that don't work as good as you know the traditional tourniquets. I know we've talked about this before on the podcast, but I recently put a tourniquet on and I got up to seven turns once with miguel, which is crazy and the tourniquet just deformed, actually broke. One last week, I don't think I told you, or actually it was this week. On monday, I put it on and started twisting it and the buckle broke, uh, I think right around the seventh or eighth turn, and I was like, oh well, there you go. You know fake tourniquets. So those are the things that you definitely want to look out for.
Jimmy:Um, there's videos out there I believe there's even a clip on life safety's social media of me talking about a fake tourniquet. Um, you check that out, uh, now, so that's, you know kind of your house a little bit, your car a little bit. You know, think about if you're camping or backpacking or something like that, and you're going to take a kit with you. Again, think of you know size and weight, obviously, and what do you think you're going to encounter. So if you're going out you know camping and you think you're going camping with some folks, that you're going to have a campfire, you may want to have some burn stuff Just in case.
Megan:Personally speaking, I take one of those instant cool packs with me wherever I go.
Jimmy:Yeah, because.
Megan:I am clumsy. Yes. And I, as we saw, about 20 minutes ago. Yes, yes. And so having an ice pack with me is good, because the amount of sprained ankles or things that I've run into is impressive.
Jimmy:Absolutely. That's pretty crazy. Something like that might help in A good pair of tweezers in a first aid kit is huge. I'm getting a little longer in the tooth, as they say, a little older. My eyesight's not as great as it used to be. If you're not using the magnifier function on your phone, they actually make tweezers with magnifier glasses on them that are attached and that those help really good, um, you know. So that's something to think about. Uh, when you're out in the forest, a tick tool or a tick puller depending on where you're from.
Jimmy:Um, that might be very helpful, you know, to remove a tick if you get one. Another one is, uh, if you're hiking and your first aid kit is, uh, moleskin or second skin for blisters. Something to think about, something about. Yeah, um, again around the house a lot of that burning cream for first and second degree burns looks great. Um, we talked about home remedies and stuff like that in a previous podcast. With burns, don't put toothpaste on it, don't put butter on them, you know don't spray it.
Jimmy:No with Windex or ammonia, right? No, rubbing alcohol, those kind of things. To circle back and again, remember this is your emergency supplies for emergency medical supplies, right, not to be confused with your emergency disaster supplies. So after an earthquake, tsunami, things like that happen, you know we want to take care of ourselves, so different things now. That's kind of your everyday boo-boo packs and maybe trauma. And then you may want to start thinking about okay, so what happens if we do have an earthquake? And Okay, so what happens if we do have an earthquake and we have somebody injured and it is a sprained ankle or a broken leg or something like that, that we may not be able to get to the hospital, the hospital's overran? Then we have to think about thinking long term. So what about those tourniquets, again for bleeding? What about a splint like a SAM splint? Do you know how to use a SAM splint or are you just going to use cardboard, maybe some triangular bandages for cravats and tying and lashing things down? And again, your emergency bags or your gear that you're going to keep at your house and your garage shed, whatever hall closet, whatever you decide to keep your emergency stuff at. Versus man, I have to bug out. I can't live in my house anymore and I'm going to go to a shelter emergency shelter or I'm not going to go to a shelter at all and I'm going to go camp. Whatever your plan is, make sure you kind of plan accordingly with your gear.
Jimmy:A lot of people in the armed services they always say one is none and two is one. Have a backup, just in case. I think last time I counted there's two, maybe four. I think I have six tourniquets in our house right now. Obviously, it's a little different from what I do, right, it's not like that for everybody, but I know we have a lot out there In case one breaks and we can use it, and they're all dispersed in the houses so we can get to it quickly.
Jimmy:Um, so that's just kind of a, you know, a stepping stone. Obviously, you can always reach out to us at email, at lifesafetycom, uh, and ask questions about that kind of stuff. You know, if it's quick, easy stuff like that, it's not a big deal. Obviously, you can direct message us on, you know, facebook or um, instagram. You know we'll try to reach out and talk like that. There's lots of good stuff out there, um, but buy, buy a base what you think is going to work for you and just add to it or take away, like megan said earlier, and get training. Um, you prefer obviously, if you train with us, but if you don't train with us, train with somebody, get some kind of training. And, other than that, happy New Year, be safe and we'll see you on the next one.
