Digits, Aspirin and an NFC Powered Cheatsheet

This past weekend we got recertified in CPR and first aid, and so the time was right for me to take stock and up my first aid game. Here are three changes I've made as a result.

I've gotten into the habit of handwriting key phone numbers in the back of my pocket notebook. That way if I lose my phone I've got a fighting chance of contacting loved ones. To this list I added Poison Control (800-222-1222) and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (800-273-8255). Hopefully I'll never need either of these, but should one of them be necessary, I want the quickest access possible.

I've been vaguely aware of the recommendation that if someone is having heart attack symptoms they should take an Aspirin. This advice appears to be legit, and have added 4 tablets of 325mg Aspirin to my kit.

A day of CPR and first aid training is helpful, but those skills are awfully perishable. To help retain them we're given a quick reference guide. I pondered the best way to store this guide and came up with the following.

First, I copied the salient details of guide into a plain old .html file. After storing this file locally on my phone I setup a trivial Tasker action that opens this file in a browser. I then setup two quick ways to access this Tasker action: the first is a widget on my home screen, and the second is a via an NFC tag that's placed in the first aid kit itself. I'm not sure how practical this second method is, but it's pretty sweet to hover my phone over my first-aid kit and have a cheatsheet pop-up in response.

Will this NFC tag approach work in a high-stress emergency scenario? Probably not. But it does make launching the file easy and if I do that every couple months for a quick review, that alone will be helpful.

Finally, here's a couple snapshots of my EDC first aid kit. A good bit of it is little more than meds and tape, which can truly work wonders. The gloves, CPR face shield and tourniquet are a nod to the fact that very bad things can happen when we least expect it. The ear plugs are because I kept showing up at concerts unprepared and kids today play their music too dang loud.