Also Sprach Gary Warner :

I recently took a CPR & First Aid course. Made me think more about a medical
kit for the boat. I had a pretty cheap one on the other boat that I was
going to use on this one. But it's pretty bad. I see West sells some, but
knowing boating stores that's probably the last place to buy it. I'm
thinking I might be just as well off to buy individual supplies to suite my
(expected) needs.

Anyone have comments on where best to buy, what is most important, or maybe
what is important but often overlooked??

My pop, who was a highway cop for 30 years, always carried a first aid kit
packed in a good sized camera case. He pretty much hammered into our
heads how important a good kit was. The prepacked kits always have stuff
like asprin and tweezers and sunblock ointment and burn cream, which are
are OK to have as a convenience, but often skimp on basic items, which
could save life/limb, like:

LOTS of gauze compresses.. more than you think you could possibly
use. 4X4 is a handy size, but get some larger 5X9 trauma pads too. Pop
used to carry women's maxi pads in his kit. I'm sure they're not sterile,
but when you have a giant propeller gash in your leg, you worry about
controling the blod flow first.
Gauze rolls and medical tape
duct tape
Tourniquit
Wire cutters
sterile saline.. good for flushing eyes and wounds.
Rubber gloves
Any emergency medicines you or your family might need. (My younger brother
has a seizure distorder, so we kept extra suppplies of his meds in all our
vehicles)

Personally, a few years ago I sliced the crap out of my hand on a brand
new fillet knife, on the best day of salmon season that year. Needed 28
stitches across 3 fingers. 4X4 copmpresses were my friend that
day. Since the 2 friends who were fishing with me that day were fine with
operating the boat, but clueless as to loading the trailer, I sent them
back out to fish while I got myself repaired at the hospital. I was
mighty ****ed when I returned to help them load the boat and they had
limited out while I had managed a single fish before I filleted myself.


Dan

--
If you took away everything in the world that had to be invented,
there'd be nothing left except a lot of people getting rained on.

-- Tom Stoppard