10 Essential Contents of a First Aid Kit

In our day to day life, we all face several risks/hazards inside and outside the house regularly. There may be a slip from the stairs, or a cut on the fingers, a shock from defective electrical fittings or injury/accidents on the road.

So, day in and day out, each one of us are prone to face several problems, which become not only dangerous but are apt to several life threatening complications that sometimes causes death. So, to tackle such petty and serious problems of life, one needs to be aware of first aid, and how to impart first aid service during emergency situations of life.

First aid is the immediate and temporary care given to the victim of an accident or sudden illness. Its purpose is to preserve life, assist recovery and prevent aggravations of the condition, until the services of the doctor can be obtained or during transport to hospital or the casualty's home. The importance of first aid is very well evident from the first aid box that is usually seen in buses, trains, in plat forms, cinema halls, restaurants and hotels, in schools and colleges and almost in all public places and homes of all sensible citizens of the country.

What you need in a first-aid kit

A home first aid kit is mainly intended for minor injures that you can treat yourself, but it should also be equipped to deal with more serious injures until the victim gets professional medical help.

First aid kits can be bought ready-made from chemists, but you can make up your own with the items given below:

1. A box of adhesive dressing (Plasters) of different sizes for covering small wounds. A roll of plaster (Cloth backed, plasticized or micro-pore tape). Blunt-ended scissors for cutting bandage of plaster.

2. Antiseptic lotion to use with the cotton wool and antiseptic wipes.

3. Cotton wool for cleaning cuts and gauzes.

4. Some triangular bandages to several safety pins for making a sling or emergency bandage.

5. Sterile dressings (field dressings) of various sizes for covering wounds. Sterile eye dressings with bandage attached for eye injuries.

6. Aspirin or paracetamol preferably sealed in foil to give longer life.

7. Anti histamine cream for insect bites and stings.

8. Tweezers for removing splinters.

9. Tubular gauze bandages for finger injuries and applicator tongs.

10. Two or three crepe or conforming bandages for sprains and for wounds in awkward places such as elbows and ankles.