AllOutdoor Review: My Medic TFAK – Micro Trauma First Aid Kit
Adam Scepaniak 06.08.23
It is great to see a growing awareness for the importance of medical care – and self medical care – when it comes to our hunting, shooting, and recreation in the outdoors. If you are hiking the Appalachian or at your local gun range, it is important to have basic first aid skills coupled with first aid tools. Nothing over-the-top, but the basics can care for and save someone until more advanced medical care can be delivered. One company that has taken medical care – an often daunting subject to learn for many – and distilled it down to simple packaging and products is My Medic. They offer a bevy of specialized products you can take with you in the great outdoors as well as simple ones. For this AllOutdoor Review, we are going to take a gander at something in between with the My Medic TFAK – a micro Trauma First Aid Kit. Let’s dive in!
First Aid Coverage on AllOutdoor
- IFAKs: Building an Effective Individual First Aid Kit
- Injury Risk – How to Minimize It on Your Next Hunting Excursion
- AllOutdoor Review – Grey Man Tactical Vehicle Seatback RMP Package
- Tourniquet Etiquette – The Do’s and Don’ts of Applying a Tourniquet
Specifications: My Medic TFAK – Micro Trauma First Aid Kit
The My Medic TFAK is offered in a variety of colors if you need it to meet your loadout for a specific occupation, or if you just like a little variety. Your options are red, black, orange, inferno, coyote, and green. These trauma kits are built-out in the USA, carry a Lifetime Guarantee, and are HSA/FSA approved as well. Some of the simple highlights for the My Medic TFAK can be read below:
- Tear Away Panel – Designed to enable quick access without the hassle of unbuckling
- Removable Tourniquet Pouch – External Velcro-backed tourniquet pouch for rapid access in an emergency situation
- Compact and Organized – Internal butterfly storage designed for accessibility provides plenty of room for customizing your kit with personal tactical and first aid supplies
- Button Straps – Two-button straps on the back, perfect for attaching to other equipment
If this trauma kit sounds intriguing to you, My Medic is making it as enticing as possible for you to purchase one this summer. They are running a “Summer Sale” where you can get 30% OFF plus receive a Free Burn Pack with an order over $100 (which the My Medic TFAK would be applicable for). That brings the price down to $111.96 making the trauma kit quite the value – and if that wasn’t enough – you can get a FREE lifesaving training video course ($125 Value) with the purchase of a Pro Kit (which the My Medic TFAK is).
- Height: 8″
- Width: 5″
- Depth: 4″
- Weight: 20 Oz
- Type: Specialty
- Working Environments: Dry, Dirty (Muddy, Light Rain NOT Recommended)
A micro trauma kit packed with essential life-saving supplies. Designed by medical and firearm professionals, a first aid kit perfect for hunting, the gun range, your car, and more.
What’s Inside: My Medic TFAK – Micro Trauma First Aid Kit
So, the big question: what’s inside?! Most people are familiar with or heard of an IFAK (Individual First Aid Kit). That’ll have all of the necessary pieces for cuts, scrapes, abrasions, avulsions, and most “surface injuries.” Essentially, an IFAK helps stop bleeding and more simple injuries. The difference between an IFAK and the My Medic TFAK is that a trauma kit provides you with tools for worse injuries. We are talking about chest seals for sucking chest wounds, nasopharyngeal airways (NPA) if someone has an obstructed windpipe, and of course, tourniquets and other bleeding control mechanisms.
- Super Wash – Saline wash for irrigating wounds or eyes
- Small EMT Shears – Cut your way out of most anything
- Space Blanket – Thermal insulation blanket designed to reflect 90% of body heat
- 1 Pack of 2 Chest Seals – Treats penetrating injuries to the chest with one-way valve to prevent pneumothorax
- CPR Shield – Creates barrier to prevent transmission of disease when performing CPR
- Mini Tool Mod – (1) Penlight, (1) Tweezer, (1) Whistle
- Gloves – 1 pair of disposable gloves
The My Medic TFAK contains over 35 quality supplies including 15 trauma items in a packable, all-in-one medical kit for on-the-go. It is what we would call a great convenience item. It is something to have by your side that hopefully you will never need to use, but in the one-in-a-million chance that you do, it affords you a lot of different medical care pathways before an ambulance or higher level EMT arrives.
- RATS Tourniquet – Easy use tourniquet to stop arterial bleeding
- Compressed Gauze – Vacuum-sealed gauze to treat serious bleeding
- Emergency Pressure Bandage – Compact trauma dressing to treat serious bleeding (Dimensions: 4″ x 36″)
- ZZips 2-Pack – (2) ZZIPS Devices, (1) Instruction for Use
- QuikClot Pack – Hemostatic dressing to control traumatic bleeding
- NPA 28 Med Pack – (1) NPA 28, (1) Dynalube Packet
- My Medic Marker – Felt tip pen, versatile in many situations
Field Use: My Medic TFAK – Micro Trauma First Aid Kit
So, here comes the difficult part of reviewing a trauma kit… how do you review a trauma kit without actually applying the provided tools on live subjects?… For the sake of debate, it would be better if we could review everything that My Medic has placed into this trauma kit out in the field. Yet, it’d quickly descend into quite the gory review if I actually knew someone that needed a chest seal (example – shot in the chest with a firearm), and I wasted time “saving that person’s life” to take pictures for ya’ll. That’d make for one super pi$$ed-off, shot individual.
Instead, I will speak from my personal medical experience as a certified First Responder, a sanctioned Firefighter for the state of Minnesota, and having completed 4 years of university study in pursuit of a Physical Therapy Doctorate. What is contained in the My Medic TFAK is what I view as a mid-tier collection of medical equipment. A lot of the components are entry-level (which is great) with a sprinkling of higher level tools (also great).
You have simple tools like a saline solution to flush out an individual’s eyes if something is irritating or burning them. Most people could intuit how to use that with little to no medical training at all. Then, you have what used to be a higher level tool in a tourniquet (heavy emphasis on “used to be”) because more and more people are understanding the efficacy and value of carrying and utilizing tourniquets. Just make sure to take a medical course or watch a few YouTube videos before you go cinching up all of your friends’ appendages.
Then, you get into more advanced levels of care like chest seals and nasopharyngeal airways (NPA). I hope none of you reading this ever need either of those tools, but if you do need one and actually apply it out in the field, there is the tremendous upside of saving a life. An NPA does have a technique to properly inserting it into someone’s throat, and pre-lubricating it helps ensure you don’t abrasively scar their trachea. Equally, being first on scene to someone with a gun shot wound is incredibly rare, but if it is a loved one during hunting season, you’ll be grateful you can hopefully save their life until an ambulance or EMT with higher level care arrives.
Back to some more simple yet valuable items, you have a medical shears for cutting obstructive clothing or bandages, gloves for your protection, and QuikClot for deep, penetrating wounds that wound slow down bleeding. Even a space blanket – as thin and compact as they are – can be a great temporary remedy until you get yourself and/or others to a better location.
Final Thoughts: My Medic TFAK – Micro Trauma First Aid Kit
There might be some surgeons in the reading audience and there also might be some shooters who have never heard of a tourniquet before. I realize we have people coming from all walks of life and experience levels. With that being said, what are my final thoughts on the My Medic TFAK – micro Trauma First Aid Kit?… At the price of $159.99 (regular MSRP) to $111.96 (discounted price), this is a trauma kit worth investing in. Bear in mind, this is an on-the-go solution to throw in your camping sack, hiking backpack, or the back seat of a car when you come across the scene of a car crash. If your day job is an ambulance EMT then this trauma kit gravely falls short. If you are an avid outdoors-person like 90% of us here with base level first aid training, then this is perfect. The more difficult you make any IFAK/TFAK, the less likely you will be able to find essential tools or apply them properly in the heat of the moment because anxiety and stress is real. So, in sum, we recommend the My Medic TFAK.
In closing, I want to say thank you to My Medic for allowing AllOutdoor and myself the opportunity to try out their My Medic TFAK – Micro Trauma First Aid Kit. That is greatly appreciated. Also, we would like to know what all of you guys and gals think? Do you believe that the My Medic TFAK – Micro Trauma First Aid Kit is something worth spending your money on? Would you take it with you hunting, hiking, camping, or leave on in your vehicle? As always, let us know all of your thoughts in the Comments below! We always appreciate your feedback.
