I finally got to train with Caleb Causey from Lone Star Medics. Virtually. I mean I would have preferred it if my first training experience had been in person with some hands-on labs and some range work, but that’s on me since Lone Star Medics classes are often  hosted by KR Training which I happen to frequent often. So I don’t really have an excuse. That’s not quite right. I have excuses. They just aren’t good excuses, but that’s neither here nor there.

Lone Star Medics (LSM) is a medical training and consulting company based out of Dallas, Texas with a focus on field and tactical medicine. These services are offered to everyone from the layperson with no formal first aid training to healthcare professionals, providers, and equipment manufacturers. My interest in training with them started with being a better equipped armed citizen and competitive shooter, but it’s expanded to include being a responsibly prepared firearms instructor. And a fair number of their emergency medical course offerings are well aligned to all of those interests.

One of LSM’s offerings, called LSM Virtual, is virtual. The LSM Virtual learning courses are short (1-hour) inexpensive ($25) informational sessions conducted over Zoom on various topics like the Range Med Kit Loadout session that this post is about.

While the course was short in duration, it was densely packed with information and yielded several pages of notes. It wasn’t what I expected at all. It was much better.

Let’s back up a little. I expected to get a list of supplies, a recommendation or two for what to carry the supplies in, and tips on how to organize the kit with an explanation of the kits applications for potential medical emergencies that are possible at a shooting range. That’s it. I couldn’t imagine there being enough time in one hour to go beyond that. And in my mind, that’s a bargain for $25.

I got none of that. Yet, I got all of that. And then some.

You see, Caleb came right out of the gate and said that he wasn’t going to give us a supplies list because each kit has to be tailored to the activity and environment.

Yeah, I’m going to refer to Caleb Causey by first name because I consider him my friend. Especially after having the chance to share a meal with him, his wife, and his kid. But I digress.

“Mission dictates gear and how it’s carried”, he said. Geez! That sounds really familiar to how we select firearms, prepare hunting packs, and many other things we do to be adequately prepared for whatever. It really shouldn’t be surprising that the same approach also applies to medical kits.

After shattering my expectations, Caleb proceeded to review layer based approaches to kits starting with the immediately accessible level 1 kit (akin to the EDC medical kit) all the way to the level 4 medical supply stash kept at home in large bins. Layering? Where have I heard that concept before? I wonder.

Following the brief layering review, the class shifted focus to the level 1, on body kit, and the level 2, nearby larger kit, for the remainder of the hour.

We did get suggestions for what sorts of items should be considered for inclusion in those kits depending on the details of the activity. There are some staples to deal with traumatic bleeds – which are rather uncommon medical emergencies that we should be prepared for given their life threatening nature. Those staples include tourniquets, wound packing material, pressure dressings, and personal protective equipment.

We then took an inventory of the various medical emergencies that students have actually seen on the range. These included things like heat related illnesses, dehydration, minor cuts and scrapes (slide bite anyone?), and the occasional trip and fall. Pretty sure that with this exercise Caleb wanted to point out that things like gun shot wounds and other penetrating traumas weren’t all that common since they weren’t listed. But alas, I was present and a gunshot wound was the first thing that I mentioned because of a local unintentional discharge incident that occurred a few months back. Nevertheless, the point of these major medical emergencies being the exception to the rule was made and received.

Using those medical emergency examples, we covered additional supplies worth considering many of which are suitable for the nearby level 2 kit. Examples of the medical additional supplies include, but are not limited to: silk medical tape, tweezers, hand sanitizer, extra tourniquets, more gloves, more gauze, bandaids, and irrigation supplies. One really can’t have enough gloves and gauze.

Circling back to the mission dictating gear and how it’s carried, we spent some time looking at important planning and preparedness principles such as doing the homework and having a range medical response plan ready to go prior to the activity. With that pre-planning complete, we should have a good idea of:

• How many people one is responsible for which will dictate quantities of supplies
• What the environment is like which will help determine not just the types of supplies to consider, but also communication or evacuation plans for reaching higher levels of care

A few minutes were dedicated to consideration of supplemental equipment that can make giving aid easier. These were items like headlamps, leather work gloves, and a litter.

The last quick topic covered was the value of having an AED available.

Not bad for $25, right?

All I know is that LSM holds one or two of these LSM Virtual classes every month. As of writing, there are two upcoming LSM Virtual classes on the training events calendar. One on broken bones. One on wound packing. And I’m planning on attending both of them.

I will encourage y’all to take a peek at the courses offered by Lone Star Medics and consider attending one or more to shore up your emergency medical knowledge and skills. These are essential skills that are very likely to be needed by the prepared citizen in the real world that can mean the difference between life and death while waiting for a response from local emergency services.