[Review] Tact-Med Info Emergency Cards

What if you’re so injured you can’t give info to first responders?

I want to share a product with you that will give you a huge advantage when preparing to interact with EMS personnel—it’s called Tact-Med Info and there’s a pretty incredible story behind its development.

The owner of the company is a deputy sheriff in California named Josh. 

Like so many rural officers, he toured his jurisdiction without a car partner. Many times, any backup he needed was miles away. 

This is critical because when things are really going badly, seconds matter. 

In fact, seconds can save lives.

Strength Through Adversity

Josh got a call one day for a person who refused to leave a business. Now at first blush, this seems fairly innocuous, maybe a drunk refusing to leave a bar, or a panhandler not wanting to leave a primo spot. 

When Josh got on scene, he learned the business was actually a pharmacy. Worse still, the “customer” refusing to leave was a drug-addled fiend who was repeatedly trying to gain entry into the building. 

The initial efforts of the suspect escalated the more frustrated he got with being denied entry. Josh contacted the suspect and tried to get him to leave but pretty soon the maniac started trying to tear the doors off the building.

Let’s take a break for some perspective here. There’s a uniformed deputy who responded in a marked patrol car, telling a suspect to stop trying to break into a pharmacy, and leave!

Okay, eventually Josh realized he was going to have to go “hands-on” with the suspect. This is cop jargon that refers to physically forcing people into handcuffs.

It also demarks a boundary, an event horizon if you will, where talking your way out of a situation (suspect or officer) is no longer an option. 

Josh grabbed the drug-crazed suspect and the fight was on. His backup was still miles away. The physical battle was so bad, one of Josh’s wrists was soon shattered, his bicep was also torn from the bone in his arm. 

Despite this, he managed to get the suspect into custody.

Technological Frailties

Soon backup arrived and so did the medics.

Josh was loaded into an ambulance where paramedics addressed his injuries and asked him about allergies and other pertinent information. Josh referred them to his cell phone.

Like so many people these days much of the information needed was contained on that device. Like Josh’s wrist, it was shattered in the fight, and would not function.

Josh thought of relatives who could be called who also had this critical knowledge, but their information was locked in the damaged device too.

Upon arrival at the hospital, Josh learned he needed to go into surgery to begin repairing the damage done while battling the drug addict. 

Once again, he reached for his phone to make emergency notifications to the people who would surely want to be waiting there once he got out of the operating room.

The destroyed phone stifled him once again. Ultimately, five hours later, Josh’s next-of-kin was notified and rushed to be by his side as he recovered from surgery.

I can tell you from my own experience serving in fire, EMS, and law enforcement for many years, we often find ourselves in terrible situations and later think about how the hell we could do something better.

It doesn’t matter if it’s training, a fix, even inventing something that will make our lives better. Because here is the sad lesson—if it happened once, it can happen again. 

Josh was cut from the same bolt of cloth and he determined to do better.

He knew he could not rely on a cellphone. It didn’t matter if it was a suped-up maniac, a car crash, or some other kind of trauma, phones can break when you need them most. 

Josh wanted to come up with a solution that provided the most pertinent information EMTs need when they come to treat you. He worked with a paramedic to list out the details they really wanted to know, allergies, blood type, medications, etc. 

He also wanted to provide a solution with easy access to emergency contact information so no one would have to go through what he and his caretakers faced during his situation. 

Soon, Josh had a form that had all this information on it. He added a high-visibility tag to it so medics would be drawn to it. Ultimately, the product was called Tact-Med Info.

A Wider Audience

Not long after, Josh realized this inexpensive solution had a lot wider appeal than just to lone deputies on patrol. 

All kinds of folks in harm’s way could benefit from the product, SWAT, fire, medics, search and rescue personnel. Turns out, just about anyone who could even have an accident might benefit from Josh’s experiences, and his solution.

Many people assume if something happens to them, they’ll be conscious when help arrives. I can tell you that’s not always the case. 

With the Tact-Med Info, you can fill out critical information and have it on your person if something happens. 

This is incredibly handy and gives care providers a huge leg up when they begin to treat you.

It doesn’t really matter if you’re a diabetic, if you’re allergic to certain things, even if you’re perfectly healthy—having your blood type and emergency contact information listed on a Tact-Med Info saves those precious seconds I referenced above, the second that save lives!

What is your back-up plan for when your cell phone breaks? Do you have an IFAK in the car also? Let us know in the comments! If you’re missing an IFAK, take a look at the Best IFAK: Pouches, Complete Kits, and Contents!