Originally Posted by emma69

As I understand it, a flight first aid kit has items that only paramedics, doctors or those otherwise authorized to use them in (aside from band aids etc that the FA can dole out.) A doctor on board (or in some cases, via a radio link) can instruct items to be used (my doctor friend was called upon on a long flight to deal with a medical emergency and had access to several drugs she needed to sustain life). It is a very different situation to an office first aid kit, where emergency life support is a short distance away (911 etc.).

I was trained in combat first aid, which is again a very different ball game to office first aid, and our first aid kits included, among other things, morphine single dose syringes (a bit like epi pens) which we were all trained to administer. We also learnt how to reinflate a lung, tube an airway, deal with abdominal organs that have left the abdominal cavity, and other gross things I hope I never have to do. Whilst I am never going to take a razor blade and tube to a stranger's throat should they no longer have a viable airway, I would certainly give it a go on a friend or relative if needed (the alternative being that they would die).

There are two types of first aid in my mind - what you do to help strangers, and what you do to help a close friend or loved one.