Family First Aid Kit with Tourniquet and Hemostatic Gauze

What it is: A complete family first aid kit built by a working paramedic, with the supplies for everyday injuries plus the gear that matters when bleeding is serious. Includes kaolin hemostatic gauze, a functional windlass-style tourniquet, and separate adult and child/infant CPR masks.

One note on the masks: most kits give you a single one-size shield. This one includes two shields plus a dedicated adult mask and a dedicated child and infant mask with a one-way valve. A proper seal is what makes rescue breaths work, and one size does not seal the same on a 40 pound child as it does on a grown adult.

Why This Kit Exists

Most family first aid kits are built for paper cuts. They're fine until the day something actually goes wrong.

I've spent more than two decades on emergency calls, and the injuries that scare me aren't the scraped knees. They're the ones that bleed fast: a deep cut from a broken window, a bike crash on gravel, a kitchen accident with a real knife. In those first few minutes, before help arrives, what you have in your hands is what the person gets.

This kit covers both. The bandages and burn care for ordinary days, and the bleeding control gear for the day you hope never comes.

What's Included

The Family Kit includes everything in our Children's First Aid Kit, plus advanced supplies for bleeding control, splinting, and wound closure.

Everyday injury care

• Child design bandages
• Knee and elbow bandages
• Fingertip bandages
• Knuckle bandages
• Round bandages
• Waterproof bandages
• Cleaning wipes
• Soap wipes
• Triple antibiotic ointment
• Saline solution
• Burn gel
• Sting relief pads
• Stinger scraper
• Ice pack

Wound and bleeding control

• Kaolin hemostatic gauze
• Windlass-style tourniquet
• 3 x 3 sterile pads
• ABD pad and oval eye pads
• 1 inch roller gauze
• Wound closure strips
• Self-adhesive wrap
• Elastic wrap
• Triangular bandage

Tools and assessment

• Trauma shears
• Tweezers
• Nail clippers
• Digital thermometer
• Flexible splint
• Emergency blanket
• Gloves
• 2 CPR shields
• Adult CPR mask
• Child and infant CPR mask
• Emergency contact card
• First aid guide

About the Tourniquet

Every Family Kit includes a functional windlass-style tourniquet. I chose it and tested it myself before putting it in the kit, because a tourniquet you can't trust is worse than no plan at all.

Here's the honest part: it isn't a CAT made by North American Rescue. If you want that specific tourniquet, the one carried by military medics and EMS crews across the country, you can choose the version of this kit that includes a genuine CAT. You keep the windlass tourniquet that comes in the kit either way, so you end up with two.

That matters more than it sounds. Most people have never actually tightened a tourniquet on a limb, and a windlass is not intuitive under stress. Having a spare means you can practice with one and keep the other sealed and ready.

Which should I choose?

• Family Kit: includes a functional windlass-style tourniquet, ready to use.
• Family Kit + CAT Tourniquet: everything in the Family Kit, plus a genuine CAT by North American Rescue. You get a trusted-brand tourniquet and a second one to train with.

Either way, a tourniquet only works if you know when and how to apply it. I teach Stop the Bleed, and I'd rather you learn it from anyone than own gear you've never touched.

About the Hemostatic Gauze

The kit includes kaolin hemostatic gauze. Kaolin is a mineral that helps blood clot faster than plain gauze alone, which is why this type of gauze is used in trauma care.

It's meant for wounds you can pack, the deep ones where direct pressure isn't enough, and it's for temporary external use until you reach a hospital. Like the tourniquet, it works best in hands that have practiced with it.

Who This Kit Is For

• Families who want more than a basic bandage box
• Anyone with a workshop, kitchen, or hobby that involves sharp tools
• Households with a hunting, cycling, or outdoor sports routine
• Daycare centers, schools, and sports programs
• Anyone who keeps one kit at home and wants it to be the right one

I keep a kit like this in my house. Not because I expect to need it, but because the alternative is improvising with a dish towel.

Learn to Use It

Gear isn't a plan. The most useful thing in an emergency is knowing what to do in the first thirty seconds, and that's a skill, not a purchase.

I teach pediatric CPR, First Aid, and Stop the Bleed in the Pittsburgh area. You can see upcoming classes here.

Round Out Your Setup

• Children's First Aid Kit (Medium): a smaller everyday kit for the car or diaper bag
• LifeVac Choking Rescue Device: a second-line tool for choking emergencies, for ages 1 and up
• Children's First Aid Kit Refill: restock what you use

Questions about what's in the kit, or which option fits your family? Contact us. I'm happy to help.

This kit is intended for first aid use. Kaolin hemostatic gauze and tourniquets are for temporary external use until professional medical care is available. Call 911 for any serious bleeding injury.