# How much morphine in a medics kit **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 29, 2009, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-morphine-in-a-medics-kit/515559 "2009-10-29T03:36:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-morphine-in-a-medics-kit/515559/1 "2009-10-29T03:36:54Z")
so, I’m watching Private Ryan, and they’re injecting wounded soldiers with preloaded mophine syringes. Anybody know the dosage on that? Just professional curiosity. ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-morphine-in-a-medics-kit/515559/2 "2009-10-29T04:32:20Z")
Googling around, it looks like a pack of five 1.5cc syrettes was most common. A few of the sites that I found said that morphine tartrate was added to packs at the direction of the CO. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-morphine-in-a-medics-kit/515559/3 "2009-10-29T04:49:07Z")
1. How long does morphine last without refrigeration? 2. Is it true that some bush pilots carry morphine in their survival kits, in case they are severely injured in a crash? (If so, I assume the would return the unused drug as it expires and replace it with a new one.) ---
**Author:** ![Hirka\_T\_Bawa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/db5fbb/32.png) [@Hirka\_T\_Bawa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hirka_T_Bawa)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-morphine-in-a-medics-kit/515559/4 "2009-10-29T05:06:15Z")
> [@cornflakes](#): > > Googling around, it looks like a pack of five 1.5cc syrettes was most common. A few of the sites that I found said that morphine tartrate was added to packs at the direction of the CO. What was the concentration of those 1.5mL syrettes? Do you know? > [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > 1. How long does morphine last without refrigeration? I’m assuming it was the same back then as now, but morphine doesn’t require any refrigeration, it is stable at room temperature. ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-morphine-in-a-medics-kit/515559/5 "2009-10-29T06:39:55Z")
Generally if you are using intramuscular morphine sulphate 5-10mg is a standard dose. Off the top of my head I don’t know the dose conversion for the tartrate. When I’ve carried a cardiac ambulance bleep (i.e. if it goes off I get taken in an ambulance to the home of someone having a heart attack and give them lysis immediately\*) I’ve carried 20mg of Morphine Sulphate with me at all times. I would imagine an army medic would need more. - In actuality I was often called to the home of someone who had chest pain of a non-cardiac cause, or I was called to the home when CPR was already in progress so that the paramedics could stop on the instructions of a doctor. The latter situation was sadly quite common, and lead my boss at the time to nickname the cardiac ambulance the “mobile death certification unit.” ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-morphine-in-a-medics-kit/515559/6 "2009-10-30T03:02:28Z")
Interesting, In my neck of the woods medics can request a termination or a non-initiation of CPR order over the radio. I would have figured 5 or 10mg was a reasonable one size fits all dosage for combat wounds, I was just curious about the specific dose they carried. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-morphine-in-a-medics-kit/515559/7 "2009-10-30T03:15:58Z")
Pre-filled morphine syringes come in two sizes, 1 ml=10mg for adults and 1ml=1mg for pediatrics. EMS carries 10 mg. During Viet Nam medics carried the adult dose prefilleds. At least, that’s what they taught us in Medic school. I spent the Viet Nam years in Amarillo, TX, on a pediatric ward.