Gloves for Improvising a Chest Seal, Wound Irrigation, and More

Disclaimer.  I am not a licensed health practitioner.  This is just another post on knowledge and understanding you might wish to acquire in advance of a disaster in case no higher care is available.  As long as our society is functioning, you should leave anything more substantial than applying a Band-Aid to the professionals.  No medication, including those available over the counter, should be taken without consulting a physician.  Information shared here is for educational and entertainment purposes only.  It is not medical advice nor a substitute for licensed medical care. 
 

When putting together our first boo-boo kits, I only put one pair of gloves in the smallest kits and added an extra pair to only the largest kits.  We didn't have a lot of space in them, and quite honestly, how often would you need more than one pair of gloves?  I couldn't foresee a situation like that, so I never considered adding any more.

Doctors are great at improvising supplies in a dicey situation.   However, I am one of those people who has tremendous difficulty improvising, or using common sense to resolve a problem, or anything like that.  That part of my brain is totally empty.  Show it to me once and I'll remember it, ask me to memorize phone numbers or learn a new language, no problem, but I cannot improvise.  

So when I learn about a new workaround for a problem, I want to share it with others who have my same disability.  And there are some good reasons to pack extra gloves in your medical kits, from boo-boo kits all the way up to family medical kits.  That's because nitrile gloves can be used to improvise a number of medical supplies.  These tips will not only save you money, but they'll ultimately save space in your medical kits as well as making the smaller ones much more versatile.  Here's how you can use basic nitrile exam gloves to improvise the following:

Chest seal. Usually when a chest seal is improvised for open penetrating chest wounds, it involves taping a plastic sheet (like Saran Wrap) around three edges of the wound and leaving the fourth side open to vent.  Unfortunately, the coagulating blood often sticks to the plastic and occludes or blocks the chest wound, creating the perfect conditions for a tension pneumothorax.  

To create a flutter valve that will work better than just a plastic sheet chest seal:

• Cut the thumb off a nitrile glove at the base of the thumb
• Cut the very tip of the thumb off
• In the middle, at or just below where the thumb joint would be, cut halfway across
• Then cut from the thumb joint down to the base of the thumb and open up the base
• Using a very sticky tape, tape the base over the chest wound on all four sides

Tourniquet.  No, not for stopping life-threatening bleeding, but more for help in starting an IV, if you have to go there.

• Cut a glove open and use a wide strip to tie around an arm like the phlebotomists do when they are taking blood samples from you
  

Wound irrigation.  I'd still keep the peri bottle for use at home, but in the kits--hands down this is a better idea, especially when out and about where a stumble and fall can result in some really dirty wounds.

• Tie a knot at the base of the thumb, pinky, and two other fingers
• Fill the glove with water and twist closed at the top (base of the glove--where the wrist would be)
  
• Prick a hole in the remaining finger of the glove 
• Squeeze the water out and irrigate the wound
  

Small child distraction.  Sometimes you have to do what it takes to make a child happy.  A distraught, crying child causes everyone to get stressed.

• Blow the glove up and tie it off to make a balloon
• Use a Sharpie to put a face on the balloon
• Put the glove on your hand and make a little finger puppet family with faces on each of the fingers
  

As mentioned in the post on gloves, exam gloves are sold in three different materials.  

• Latex gloves function best, but there is always the risk of the caregiver or patient having a latex allergy.  For this reason, most people avoid latex.
• Vinyl gloves are the least expensive but they aren't very stretchy.
• Nitrile gloves are the best choice due to greater durability than latex and greater stretchiness than vinyl.  Choose blue instead of black.  Blue allows you to see blood and make notes on the back of your hand, if necessary.  Black does not and on top of that, you can't make finger puppets or balloon faces for children.
  

Links to related posts:

Gloves and Masks

Pneumothorax

Tourniquets

Wound cleaning

10.20.20