Frag Out! Magazine

to a band/bandage what significantly facilitated applying them during the combat operations in the battlefield. Such dressings, although in the various forms, shapes and sizes were provided to every soldier in almost all armies as a standard element of the equipment. It was also usually specified in which part of the uniform they should be carried (e.g. a left pocket of the jacket), what was supposed to facilitate providing first aid to a wounded person, according to the SOP of using in the first place his/her own dressing materials. Equipping every soldier with the basic dressing materials also made easier life of combat medics who could then carry a greater number of more specialized medical materials. Modern firs aid dressings, when compared to the previous ones, are characterized by a few significant properties: • promptness of using; • effectiveness in addressing bleedings and massive hemorrhages; • cooperation with other dressing materials (e.g. a gauze for packing a wound); • putting a local pressure on a wound; • compact dimensions in a packaging and an ergonomic design. But, first and foremost, they provide a possibility to use them easily on oneself, also when using only one hand what in the case of old dressings was practically impossible. In this material I will present personal dressings which I use at present and those used by me in the past which (as I think) are the most commonly applied dressings by the medical rescue workers in the regions of the tactical operations. The provided description has not a marketing character – it is only related to personal opinions, supported by a long-term experience in the emergency medical service (also associated with a combat field medicine). The Individual Dressing Probably the most widely known and distributed in the many armies, used for ages almost in an unmodified form – depending from country and www.fragoutmag.com

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