One of the most commonly asked questions in pharmacies up and down the country is what types of medicines and equipment they should have on hand in a first aid kit, and whilst there are some very common items that appear in nearly every kit, not every first aid kit is identical.
For businesses, the first aid kit contents will invariably be based on the risk assessment, with certain specialised items being more required in some workplaces than others.
Similarly at home, a first aid kit will often house emergency medication for a particular person, such as an extra inhaler or antihistamines to help during a particularly unpleasant allergy attack.
However, from the earliest days of the modern first aid kit until the present day, there are an array of specific first aid kits available that targets the most likely threats to health and safety in a particular workplace.
Here are some of the most unusual.
Railway Surgery First Aid Kit
The railway surgeon was at one time an exceptionally important subset of the medical profession, where trained travelling surgeons would be on hand to help people injured by a railway accident or otherwise based in remote locations in a manner similar to modern-day paramedics.
However, because they were often far away from their clinics, there was eternally a risk of sepsis and infections claiming the lives of the wounded before they could reach his clinic.
A prominent railway surgeon explained his plight to a medical entrepreneur by the name of Robert Wood Johnson I.
He had worked with George Seabury to try and realise Joseph Lister’s concept of antiseptic surgery, but after an acrimonious split had joined a company with his two brothers, Johnson & Johnson.
These products were ideal for a railway surgeon who could not readily carry a supply of antiseptic material but could carry sterile surgical products with him and the concept of the emergency pack of medicines and dressings was born.
These became useful not only for railway surgeons themselves but with the help of easy-to-read instructions, ensured that any healthy person at the scene could provide immediate support.
These quickly were sold to the public and became the first aid kit we know today.
Snake Bite Kit
In the 1960s, visiting forests and tropical environments had become a very popular pastime with the rise of the package holiday and international flights, which meant that many health concerns that had not been conceived of previously were now much more pressing.
Enter the snake bite kit, which consisted of a sterile scalpel and a plunger designed to suck snake venom out of a wound in a process that has since been widely discredited.
It also contained ammonia inhalant, a small vial of ammonia vapour that would be inhaled by the victim to wake them up. This has also been discredited due to the risk of bad reactions to ammonia fumes.
It is unlikely that any of these kits were used being provided mostly for peace of mind and potentially out of curiosity. Instead, the best advice is to clean and dress the bite wound and seek urgent medical help.