An open letter to Jon Snow about his survival supplies

Hey there, Jon. Sorry to bother you. I know it's been a busy couple of weeks for you, preparing for the arrival of the Night King and everything.

I'm writing because, as an ER doctor and survival medicine expert, you seem to be lacking even the most basic medical survival supplies to survive the upcoming siege of the Army of the Dead. Sure, I know you were already resurrected once without modern medicine, but luck favors the prepared, amiright?

If I may, I'd like to suggest a couple of items that I think you'll find useful. And of course, the same advice goes for anyone else who might be reading this and preparing for a disaster.

Israeli bandage

The Israeli bandage

This little device, invented by an Israeli military medic, is the bandage of choice for the U.S. Army and Special Forces. The bandage has a built-in pressure bar, that allows it to be easily wrapped around a wound as a tourniquet to stop bleeding from a major injury.

If you find that your limb has been bitten off by a White Walker, applying an Israeli bandage can stop the hemorrhage and save your life (assuming you have not become undead).

QuikClot®

Similarly, QuikClot is a hemostatic agent that helps stop bleeding of severe wounds. Apply it to a bleeding wound and watch it clot immediately.

Say you were minding your own business at a wedding, and someone suddenly came up behind you and slit your throat. Well, actually, this probably wouldn't help you much in that case, but for extremity injuries stopping severe bleeding can mean the difference between life and death, and this is just the tool to do it.

Hemostatic agents (like QuikClot) and tourniquets (like the Israeli bandage) work even better when used together. Both are recommended by the Stop the Bleed Coalition, a worthy non-profit that I recommend you check out if you survive the next battle.

Augmentin® (amoxicillin-clavulanic acid)

Augmentin is an antibiotic that's great for treating skin wounds, including cuts from dirty objects, like swords. It's a combination of two medicines, amoxicillin (the antibiotic itself) and clavulanic acid (which helps the antibiotic be more effective against certain bacteria it would otherwise be unable to fight).

Remember when you were skewered with a sword and left for dead? Boy, that was a close one!

Augmentin is also the antibiotic of choice for animal and human bites. It should come in handy if you're attacked by one of those undead Direwolves.

"I hope that whoever I bite doesn't have any Augmentin"

Bactroban® (mupirocin)

For those smaller cuts, this topical antibiotic will do the trick to fight infection. It's like Neosporin, but stronger. Specifically, it fights MRSA, the aggressive, sometimes-flesh-eating bacteria you've probably heard about in the news. (Not quite as bad as Greyscale, but the treatment for that is more complicated.)

What's that? MRSA doesn't exist in the Seven Kingdoms? Well, you're still in luck, because Bactroban covers a wide spectrum of bacteria that cause skin infections.

Bactroban doesn't treat Greyscale, unfortunately. But it's pretty good for most skin infections.

Tamiflu® (oseltamivir)

Respiratory illnesses like influenza (the flu) thrive in environments like Winterfell, where everyone is living in close quarters, with poor hygiene, in the cold. The flu virus is stabilized by cold temperatures, and the low humidity helps it stick around in the air longer, allowing it to pass from person to person.

If you do survive the Night King, I'd hate to see you wiped out by a flu pandemic, like the one in 1918 that killed almost 100 million people around the world.

Fortunately, we now have Tamiflu, an antiviral medicine that helps fight the flu. Pick some of this up to keep from getting sick. (And, remember to get a flu shot every year.)

I definitely should have gotten a flu shot

Are you prepared?

Jon, I have to say, you're not the first person I've met who isn't prepared to handle an emergency.

Sorry for the shameless plug, but that's exactly why I founded Duration Health.

We sell custom kits of prescription medications and supplies – exactly what you'd need to survive in the middle of nowhere, or at the end of the world. (We're out of Dragonglass unfortunately, but you can acquire that elsewhere.)

Our U.S. physicians prescribe antibiotics, antidotes, and more online, and ship meds directly to you. You'll have medications you need already on hand, before disaster strikes.

Check out our survival kits at www.durationhealth.com

And good luck to you on Sunday.