Dark Angel Medical (and savvy responsible armed citizens), ask, what do you carry in your EDC? At the end of the day, what’s in your pocket-dump pile? Likely, your Everyday Carry kit is designed for useful preparedness. But does your EDC kit include what’s necessary to make it an EDC medical kit? If you don’t, it’s time to re-think what you’re hauling around every day. Why? Because statistically, you’re more likely to save a life using a medical kit than a weapon.
In this episode of The Mag Life Podcast (formerly Gunfighter Cast), Daniel talks medical with “Pocket Doc” himself, Kerry Davis of Dark Angel Medical. His list of credentials and experience is impressive. He was formerly an ER medic and flight medic U.S. Air Force. After that, he was a paramedic and ER nurse, and then he spent time teaching at Magpul. Now, along with running Dark Angel Medical, he also spends time teaching at the Sig Sauer Academy. Davis is as passionate as they come about what he does.
If he doesn’t light your fire, your wood is wet!
Kerry Davis / Dark Angel Medical | Listen Now
This podcast was originally recorded and published in October of 2016.
Host: Daniel Shaw
Guest: Kerry Davis
Introduction/Timeline: Stephanie Kimmell
Training and EDC Items You Are Missing
Add a medical kit, and learn how to use it.
Timeline
00:40 Kerry Davis, aka “Pocket Doc”, founder of Dark Angel Medical
05:16 Medical Training — What do you need to know?
• Tourniquet use
• Hemostatics
• Pressure bandage application
• Understand chest wound mechanics and how to apply chest seals — more often seen in active shooter incidents compared to military situations.
08:20 How complicated are these skills?
• Chest seals, pre-made and improvised
9:26 Which tourniquets work best for adults, children, and animals
• TCCC approval isn’t necessarily the standard when you’re dealing with small limbs, as on children or animals
• RATS tourniquet: fast, intuitive
• SWAT-T – also intuitive
• Whatever tourniquet you carry, have two — one for practice and one for EDC carry.
» When practicing, check pedal pulse on the feet and radial pulse on the arm – use a doppler stethoscope if you can. If you’ve done it right, you won’t feel (or hear, if you’re using a doppler stethoscope) a pulse at those points. Did you get the tourniquet tight enough to occlude the arteries?
16:10 Once you know how to use the tourniquet correctly, teach your loved ones, friends, co-workers, and range buddies how to use one too. Why?
“The life you save may be your own.”
17:25 Davis recommends a few pressure dressings and explains why he likes them.
Full-sized Dressings
• Emergency Bandage (also known as the Izzy), which is the standard U.S. military dressing
» Simple, easy to use, and multipurpose
• OLAES dressing from Tac Med Solutions
» Multi-purpose, modular
• ETD from North American Rescue if you’re looking for a lower-profile dressing
Smaller-sized Dressings
• H&H Mini Compression Bandage
» Less than 1/2″ thick so perfect for smaller kits like an ankle med-kit.
» Effective, even though it’s small. Davis says people are often surprised by how much pressure they can get with this small bandage.
19:07 Should a person carry a medical kit with them at all times? YES. Too often, people leave out the med-kit in their EDC.
20:03 What supplies should be in a medical kit?
Bare Minimum
• Tourniquet
• Pair of Gloves
• Hemostatic
• Pressure Compression Bandage
Larger Kit — beyond the bare minimum
• Mylar emergency blanket, because hypothermia prevention is huge in controlling blood loss
The colder we are, the less we clot. The less we clot, the more we bleed.
• Chest seal
• Extra gauze
• Smaller bandages
• Extra pressure dressings
• Extra pairs of gloves
• Extra tourniquets
24:38 Practice using the other supplies too, like how to put on the gloves, or how to use the mylar blanket (consider the complications of using it in windy conditions).
25:09 Where can you find medical training?
• American Heart Association or Red Cross Basic First Aid courses
• Wilderness EMT through NOLS (Wilderness Medicine Institute)
• Lonestar Medics — Texas
• Combative Weapon Solutions — Texas
• Full Code CPR — Las Angeles, California
• Another option may be contacting a former military medic; sometimes they teach in schools and agencies
28:48 Training with Dark Angel Medical
• Find training opportunities across the U.S. with Kerry Davis and his staff on the Dark Angel Medical website
• Find Davis at the Sig Academy
31:41 Dark Angel Medical products that will serve the listener well
• Full-sized DARK kiits
• Pocket Mini
• Ammo Can Kit — fits into a .50 cal ammo can, great for the range, on the boat, etc.
• ST MIKE Kit – huge, lots of stuff in there
• Pocket kit for EDC (Mini, Junior, or regular)
• Blue Line — made for police officers, fits in slim areas (think cargo pockets) at about 1/2″ thick, with basics plus a SWAT-T
• More options to be available soon
34:48 Where to get associated products
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