Bulletproof Vests for EMS

[Dustdevil]

Really I have know clue as to what would be practical.

An externally worn vest is definitely outside the realm of practicality. You simply won't wear it. Too bulky and uncomfortable, not to mention silly looking, causing negative peer pressure. The only time you'll even possibly think to put it on is when responding to shootings, which as already mentioned, is the least likely time you'll need it. For cops, concealability is a benefit because if it is not seen, criminals forget to shoot for the head. For medics, concealability is a benefit simply because it keeps you from taking it off easily.

We had a patient restrained, at the hospital they said they could not restrain so they released patient. At least one nurse ended up with broken ribs after patient kicked them. Perhaps vest would have helped.

I was once on a routine, inter-facility transfer. While putting the patient in her hospital room, I got behind the bed, grasped the headboard, and was pulling the bed towards the wall. The headboard broke free, sending me flying backwards about four feet into the wall. My thorax put a huge dent in the wall, bending a metal rail that ran across the wall. That would have definitely done some serious damage to my chest, had I not been wearing a vest.

Am I going to go out and buy one today? Probably should, but no money. Darn IRS took it all. But will be looking at it in the future. I'm old and want to get older.

Word. Unfortunately, a lot of the resistance seen in EMS is not so much stupidity and ignorance as much as it is simple cheapness. We don't make a lot of money, so something we've never needed before tends to rate low on the financial priority scale. It's kind of like car insurance. If you haven't had a wreck in awhile (or ever), then it's sometimes hard to comprehend the need to spend money on a theoretical risk. But once you have the wreck, it's too late to go back and think about it. Same thing with a vest. I don't care if it costs a thousand bucks. That's a one-time expense that is quite literally life insurance. Considering what most medics spend on beer, cigarettes, movie rentals, and strippers in a year, there's really damn little excuse for not getting a vest.

But really, they're just not that damn expensive. You can get a level IIa for what a lot of us make in a day's work. You can get a full coverage IIIa for what just about any professional medic makes in a week. The very best vest that money can buy can be had for no more than $1000 bucks. What's that, two weeks salary, max? One to two car payments, max?

Galls is just as good a source as any, with a pretty extensive choice of vests and decent prices. You can at least get an idea of costs there, then go comparison shopping on Google. There are a lot of discount cop shops out there that sell for less than Galls.

A good resource for both education and shopping is http://www.bulletproofme.com/ . Good prices on a variety of vests, plus a lot of mildly used vests for sale at deeply discounted prices. And a lot of educational material regarding materials and how to otherwise choose a vest.

As for the levels, IIIa is the optimum choice. It's the highest level of protection available in soft body armour (level III and above is hard armour). And with materials as light, flexible, and thin as they are today, it just doesn't make too much sense to go with a lower level of vest in most cases. But, if every penny counts, and/or you're already a big fat-ass who sweats like a pig without a vest, then there is no serious compromise in going for a level II or IIa. The overwhelming majority of all street shootings are with a calibre well within level IIa specifications. Level IIa is all I have ever bought and worn before I went to Iraq.

[Riblett]

Mateo I might have known you would spar over something like this.

[Doczilla]

No vest will deflect all bullets. Every bullet will meet a type of armor that it can't penetrate.

Decisions to make when buying body armor:

Threat level: This usually means an NIJ level of certification, most practical for soft armor being (from least protection to most protection) class IIa, class II, and class IIIa. Anything higher than that (class III, class IV) will involve plates (steel, ceramic, or compressed laminate fiber), and is likely impractical for the civilian EMS environment. Threats faced in your area are typically handgun, so you won't need a system to protect you from rifle shots (SWAT medics are a different story). A good idea is to wear what the police wear in your area. Class II is fine, but you won't go wrong with IIa or IIIa. There is a minimal difference in comfort between the three levels. IIIa is the highest level of protection in a soft vest, and this is what I would recommend based on your budget.

The FBI has just released a new body armor testing standard, which goes beyond the "test shot at 16 feet on a square of material" that the NIJ currently does. The new FBI standard does test shots on the edges and center of the vest, as well as test shots on vests that have been heated, chilled, or wet. They also do contact shots. This will be the new standard of armor testing, and will likely expose some issues in current materials and influence design.

Carrier. 2 main directions here: external carrier and concealable carrier. There are practical trade-offs of each. External carriers can be adorned with patches, pockets, reflective strips, etc. They are immensely practical for tactical teams for obvious reasons, as well as the ability to upgrade or scale threat protection based on the mission. Concealable carriers are less expensive and lighter. My recommendation for civilian EMS is a concealable carrier. There is a practical reason for this: if you have an external carrier, you will be tempted to take it off, and (worse) wear it only on certain calls. Police officers don't tend to get shot on shooting calls, they get shot on domestics and traffic stops where they have no expectation of getting shot. If wearing a concealable vest, the wearer is less tempted to take off the uniform shirt, remove the vest, etc. between calls and will instead simply wear it all the time.

"Tails". These are fabric (not ballistic) panels that trail down from the carrier front and back and are designed to be tucked into your pants. They are an option on any concealable carrier. I recommend them on any concealable vest. They shouldn't cost you anything.

Coverage/wrap around. Vests come in various levels of side protection. A typical defensive posture is to present one arm to ward off the bad guy, and this can expose the area between the vest panels (I worked on a cop who was shot and killed this way). So I encourage side coverage.

Fit. Go to a police uniform shop and try it on. It should cover from the suprasternal notch to the beltline. When applying, pull it over your head and adjust the shoulder straps for the height. Then grab the velcro waist straps. Breathe out (normal breath), and simultaneously attach the waist straps from both sides (bottom ones first) with just enough tension to hold the straps straight; don't stretch them.

Materials:

Kevlar: aramid fiber. Reliable, heat resistant, predictable in its degredation.

Twaron: Like kevlar, but a little bit lighter.

Spectra: Aramid fiber laminated between sheets of plastic

Zylon: aramid fiber. Unreliable in its degradation. Pulled from the market after officers lost their lives as a result.

Woven vests are made of layers of kevlar or twaron woven into a sheet, and the sheets are piled one on top of another. Increasing threat level protection is achieved with more layers of the sheets.

Laminate vest are made of spectra or other fibers layered in between sheets of plastic to hold them together. "Gold flex" is one brand of laminate which uses kevlar in this manner. Laminate materials have been used to make vests that are lighter and thinner. I don't know if I'd call them any more comfortable. Their chief drawbacks are this: they are vulnerable to contact shots (30% of officer shootings), which melts the laminate and allows the fibers to separate. The panels can delaminate at the edges with time and use, leaving incomplete protection there. Creases in the vest from wear will allow the fibers to migrate, leaving gaps of decreased protection in the vest. The laminate also have higher evaporative resistance than woven vests, and are therefore subjectively perceived as being hotter than woven vests.

Trauma plate. This is a plate of added protection that goes in a pocket in the center of the front panel. There are hard and soft trauma plates. I'd go with the hard plate, simply because of the improved blunt trauma protection.

Stab protection. Some vests are designed and manufactured to provide stab protection from things like ice picks manufactured by prisoners. Unless you are a corrections officer or work exclusively in that environment, I don't recommend this. All body armor will provide some protection from stabs and slashes. If a 3 time violent felon has an ice pick and a grudge with you, this protection might be worthwhile.

Bottom line for civilian EMS: I recommend an all-woven kevlar concealable vest, and I recommend you wear it all the time. I have a bone to pick with Armor Holdings after some of their dealings (like the Zylon), so I'd put a plug in here for the US Armor Eagle Enforcer.

Get a Cool-Max, UnderArmour, or other moisture-wicking shirt to wear under the vest.

Care and feeding of your vest:

Allow it to dry flat after every use. Remove panels from carrier and wipe with a damp cloth. Do not use any chemicals, though a mild soap is acceptable.

Do not hang in your closet by the shoulder straps or you'll be replacing the carrier soon.

Check panels monthly for wear, delamination, creases, or other signs of wear.

Do not "soak" the panels or wash them in a washing machine.

Particularly important to a laminate vest: don't leave in your hot car trunk on a regular basis.

'zilla

[mediccjh]

As someone who is contemplating getting a vest (and has been shot at before), I personally am looking for something that would protect me if someone were to attempt to stab me or kick/punch/hit with a blunt object. I'm not worried about getting shot at as much as I am about getting kicked/punched/beat/stabbed.

Suggestions?

[AnthonyM83]

MedicCJH, read the posts above yours. They give a pretty good description of what you're looking for. Any vest will add padding/protection for fights and blunt trauma, as will the trauma plate that goes in the front. They address the stabbings too.

[spenac]

Thanks Doczilla. Now I have a better idea of what to look for. Also the link Dust provided had some good help with sizing and other questions. With this info I now plan to start looking.

Thanks .

[tniuqs]

Thank You to doczilla !

Not only did you save me hours of research, hey, maybe my life ?

I am hoping that I never actually have to do anymore personal field testing, just picking up some shifts with an stellar rural operator and they do issue balistic vests ! So walking in with YOUR pasting along of expert knowledge this will be advantagous no doubt at all.

As mediccjh case, I too have been on the recieving end of a some flying lead, but fortunately a very poor "domestic" marksman, thank dog! or maybe I just have an allergic to lead ? :wink:

Also have been suddenly "pasted" against a forward bulkhead of a gut wagon, which was not very polite either. :x a good thing I broke my PARTNERS fall

Thing is, the kicks and the punches that I have recieved over the years have all been quite well targeted on my face or head, so, do they make kevlar toques ? j/k EH!

I am not worried about the heat retention concerns, as in my world this is an advantage, as in Canada it is 10 months of winter and 2 months of poor skiing.

cheers thanks again.

[asy]

Thanks for the information, doczilla and spenac; it’s clear you took a lot of effort doing the research.

This thread brings up childhood memories: a political TV add from the 1992 Israeli government elections. Notice that we didn't have much of a fashion sense then (either).

Translation: “kalil” means “light weighted”, “easy to handle”.

The rest:

“I am a free person living in a free society. I wake up in the morning happy.

I am a free and active person. Lightness is extremely important to maintain my wonderful freedom. I am dressed up light: free hands, free legs, free spirit in my free body.

I am a free and active -but prepared- person. Before I go out to the street I put on a small vest, nothing too heavy, not to bother my freedom of movement and activeness.

Of course –don’t forget the head, it has to be protected as well so that it can be free, so that my thoughts can keep running free in my free mind.

I am a free, active, prepared but also assertive person. To defend my freedom I must be aggressive, because whoever waits to be attacked may lose their total freedom. That’s why I never leave the house without a weapon.

I am a free, active, prepared, assertive person who isn’t an idiot. And I know very well that just a club doesn’t cover all possible scenarios. And so – to protect my dear freedom, and not to compromise my easy life, I must always follow new developments, be equipped and ready.

Shhhh…. “

Poor skiing indeed.

[Dustdevil]

LOL!

As someone who is contemplating getting a vest (and has been shot at before), I personally am looking for something that would protect me if someone were to attempt to stab me or kick/punch/hit with a blunt object. I'm not worried about getting shot at as much as I am about getting kicked/punched/beat/stabbed.

A ballistic vest is as good as anything for protection from blunt trauma (kicks, punches, baseball bats, passing car mirrors, steering wheels, etc...). The vest works simply by absorbing and diffusing kinetic energy, which is what a kick or punch is. I would agree that the metal trauma inserts are probably more adept at helping you take a swift kick than the soft ones. But, unless you get the really heavy plates, you don't get any added ballistic protection from them. There is a hybrid trauma plate out now, called the Impact S.T., that gives you the durability of rigid, but the light weight of fibre. More expensive, but probably worth it.

Only a vest specifically designed for stab-resistance is going to give you reliable protection from a hard thrust from a very sharp dagger or ice pick, unless they hit your trauma plate. But don't underestimate what a ballistic vest will do to stop a blade threat. Damn few stabbings are with professionally sharpened stilettos or ice picks. Most stabbings are with pocket knives, kitchen knives, screwdrivers and broken bottles. A IIIa vest is going to either defeat or seriously slow down the great majority of those attacks, giving you time to respond with your Glock.

While I share the heavy concern of edged weapon attacks, it really doesn't make much sense to completely blow off the threat of gunfire in order to focus on only one type of threat. I've considered it too, and my conclusion was to hedge my bets with the best ballstic armour I could buy, and hope my attacker is not a trained and experienced knife fighter carrying a professionally sharpened dagger.

On my third (and final) vest, I got shirt tails, because they looked practical to me, in theory at least. In practice, they really didn't pan out, and turned into more of an inconvenience than an asset. They are not going to keep your vest from riding up. They rode up themselves, creating a wrinkle across my belly that was both unsightly and uncomfortable. Not to mention that they made it much harder to keep my uniform shirt tucked into my pants. I had to stop several times a shift and drop trou just readjust them. I quickly ended up just tucking them under the vest and never using them as tails after maybe a couple of weeks. They really served no useful purpose for me, although your mileage may vary. I was a pretty skinny guy back then, and it seems the problem would only be worse with a bigger fellow.

[Richard B the EMT]

Either it was a bad concept, or instructions for dummies, but I remember seeing a soft body armor trauma plate, had printed on it, "This Side Towards Bullet".