First Impressions: Patrol Officer's Pocket Trauma Kit

I've had the Patrol Officer's Pocket Trauma Kit by Rescue Essentials on my Amazon wish list for a while now and I finally ordered one for a trip I was planning. I have an IFAK style trauma kit that stays in my vehicle, is placed in my range bag when at the gun club, or goes with me in the field. For me it’s common sense to carry something like that when driving, shooting, hunting, and hiking, etc. 

Not much to it in size & weight, but can be useful.

Since I was planning on flying for the trip, my IFAK style kit would not be able to go with my carry on, so I ordered one of these Patrol Officer's Pocket Trauma Kit to take with. After getting it in the mail, it didn't take long to decide that I’m going to get a couple more of these.

The kit is small and lightweight. It obviously is not an all-inclusive, everything you’ll ever need first aid or trauma kit, but  pound for pound, or in this case ounce for ounce, it is a very useful compact kit. And it is a world better than what almost everyone carries with them, which is nothing.

The Patrol Officer’s Pocket Trauma Kit contains just four items inside its vacuum seals plastic bag. Nitrile gloves, Z-Pak Dressing, a SWAT-T Tourniquet and 36 inches of duct tape. While that may not seem like much, you have a lot to work with in a trauma kit that can fit in your front pants pocket.

The gloves, of course protect against the transfer of blood borne diseases and also helps keep infection causing contaminants from entering a wound. The dressing can be packed into a deep wound or can be used as a bandage on a superficial wound.

The SWAT-T tourniquet is not the best tourniquet out there, but it is a very versatile one. It is a wide piece of rubber that can be tied tight to an extremity to cut off blood flow as a tourniquet. Besides being used as a tourniquet, it can be used as an immobilizing wrap for a sprain or fracture, hold the dressing included in the kit in place as a pressure bandage, used as a sling and be used in combination with the duct tape as a chest seal.

As I just mentioned, the duct tape can be used for making a chest seal, with the dressing in making a pressure bandage, as an immobilizing wrap or sling. Plus is could be used in making a splint for a fracture.

Again it is not everything one might want in a trauma kit, but for something that costs around $20 and fits in a pocket it’s a pretty good thing to have. In my opinion, there is no good reason why someone shouldn't have at least one of these. It’s an ideal thing to have in the glove box of your vehicle, in a purse, brief case, shoulder bag, desk drawer or even keep one in the kitchen junk drawer.

Here's a link to it on Amazon:

Here's a link YouTube video of me yammering about it

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