The Army is now issuing to Soldiers the more robust, more streamlined “Individual First Aid Kit II” as replacement for the older kit which was built inside an ammunition pouch for a Squad Automatic Weapon.
The IFAK II contains the entire supplies of the old kit, with the addition of a second tourniquet, a tactical combat casualty card to annotate what sort of first aid was applied to a wounded Soldier, a marker, an eye fixed shield, a rubber seal with a valve for sucking chest wounds, and a strap cutter.
The kit fits inside a custom pouch that may be mounted out-of-the-way at the back of a Soldier’s Improved Outer Tactical Vest.
“That’s typically low-rent real estate there,” said Maj. Peter Stambersky, assistant product manager of Soldier clothing and individual equipment at Program Executive Office Soldier, Fort Belvoir, Va. “Guys don’t use it an excessive amount of.”
The pouch has “US IFAK” printed on its rear, so Soldiers may easily identify its contents, Stambersky said. The person tourniquet pouches also contain customizable, removable tabs that let Soldiers at hand write their blood type or unit at the kit.
While the recent first aid kit may be mounted on a Soldier’s back, it really is designed to be easily accessible when needed for both right-handed and left-handed Soldiers.
The IFAK II may be faraway from its container pouch from each side by pulling on considered one of two tabs and slipping it out of its case. The tabs even have small “flaps” on them, in order that when a Soldier is reaching for the kit, he can get some tactile feedback that lets him know he’s pulling at the right tab, Stambersky said. When removed, the foldable kit remains attached to the pouch by an elastic tether.
The kit also comes with two removable tourniquet pouches that may be mounted to the kit, or to other parts of a Soldier’s gear. Stambersky said Soldiers might even remove one of several tourniquets from its separate pouch and store it in a cargo pocket on their uniform pants, or in a sleeve pocket.
“You can take this out and walk around with them on your pocket, which various guys are doing in-country now,” he said, while waving the un-pouched tourniquet within the air.
The kit is already in Afghanistan in small numbers, as portion of a previously initiated limited user evaluation involving 4th Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, out of Fort Polk, La. In September, units at Fort Bragg, N.C., received the kits in the course of the Rapid Fielding Initiative prior to their very own deployment.
Stambersky said the military added the Tactical Combat Casualty Care card and a small Sharpie marker to the kit as a means for Soldiers who’ve administered first aid to a fellow Soldier to denote to follow-on doctors the type of assistance that was rendered. The cardboard, once marked, is intended to be attached to the uniform of the afflicted Soldier. The hot method, he said, is best than the old way.
“What you could possibly do in case you found me at the battlefield and also you applied a tourniquet to me is you may write that in this card and fasten this to my body,” Stambersky said. “In the old days, the technique was to take blood and write ‘T’ for your forehead. But that may get smudged with sweat or water; it’ll rub off.”
Also included inside the new kit is a rubber seal that appears just like a stopper to position over a sink drain, but with a valve in it to let loose blood. The seal is supposed for Soldiers who suffer a sucking chest wound. That occurs when a bullet, as an instance, has pierced their chest and lung, and due to the new hole they’re unable to correctly draw air into their lungs. In past times, Soldiers could have been directed to bandage a Soldier’s ID card or other piece of flexible plastic over the wound to hide the opening. The recent seal now fills that role.
Pouches contained in the IFAK II are left empty in order that Soldiers can also be issued QuickClot Combat Gauze after they receive their kit. The gauze, because of its shelf life, will not be distributed with the kits.
Also within the kit is a watch shield, that’s a small, curved aluminum disk with padding at the edges which might be placed over a Soldier’s wounded eye. The shield is intended to maintain pressure off a wounded eyeball when a Soldier’s injured head is subsequently wrapped with bandages.
“The eye shield is an addition, above and beyond what was within the IFAK II,” Stambersky said. “Eye shields are at the battlefield now within the MOLLE (Modular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment) medic set and within the combat lifesaver bags. But now every Soldier has one, to avoid further injury to the attention socket and to the attentionball.”
The addition of the eye shield came after the members of the military ophthalmological community — eye doctors — recognized that something had to be done in theater to offer Soldiers who administer first aid to their injured buddies the tools had to prevent further, perhaps irreparable damage to eyes.
One such doctor is Dr. Robert Mazzoli, an ophthalmologist and retired Army colonel. He now serves because the director of education, training, simulation and readiness on the Department of Defense’s Vision Center of Excellence.
Mazzoli said the military medical community had identified that eye injuries weren’t being treated with a watch shield, “which is the perfect immediate treatment.”
He said they tracked why that was not happening, and located the attention shield was “not available where the injury was happening.”
“When we elevated that as a priority to the [U.S. Army Medical Department] Center and college, the logistics people and the Committee on Tactical Combat Casualty Care, they latched directly to that,” Mazzoli said.
He said quickly after that, the attention shields started making their way into various medical kits at the battlefield, and most recently they were included within the IFAK II.
While Mazzoli said it’s a good move at the portion of the military to incorporate eye protection in first aid kits, he says it’s important too that training on use the brand new equipment can also be provided.
“We even have to make certain they know,” he said.
One of the “good news” stories that has pop out of the hot wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is the advancements in medicine and combat care, Mazzoli said.
“It shows how we’re doing things differently on this war than any previous war that we have got fought, in that we’re making rapid changes not to just how we’re looking after causalities, but to the stuff we can maintain casualties with — just like the eye pro, just like the tourniquets, and the construction of latest body armor systems,” he said.
Stambersky said the brand new IFAK II is designed to give to Soldiers only the foremost basic tools had to save lives, on the place where injuries occur.
“What the IFAK II gets at is life, limb, eye sight, immediate point of harm care — what must be done immediately to maintain that Soldier alive,” he said.
Related Topic Tags