Have a read of this. http://www.traumamonkeys.com/home/2014/11/9/5-myths-about-tourniquets.
In short, improvisation is good but no substitute for the right kit.
In short, improvisation is good but no substitute for the right kit.
5 myths about Tourniquets.
- Thread starter Gimli
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Strikes me that, as usual, the use of a tourniquet is only really safe and effective when used by somebody with a high level of competence. Except in extreme last-resort situations, that is.
You'd have to do a fair bit of training to an advanced level in order to be able to address and evaluate which of the many types mentioned in the article would be the correct ones to have with you; but the charts of what happens over periods of application is certainly good information.
You'd have to do a fair bit of training to an advanced level in order to be able to address and evaluate which of the many types mentioned in the article would be the correct ones to have with you; but the charts of what happens over periods of application is certainly good information.
About 20 years ago, they were always taught in the military, then they fell out of favour. Suddenly, they came back with avenge nice due to massive trauma from IED strike and lots of people have had heir lives saved since then. I did hear of plevis' being crushed because people were jamming thier knees onto the femoral artery area rather than use a tourniquet, thus the resurgence of them.
If a femoral artery is severed the patient has minutes to live.
So anything to slow the bleeding is going to help.
Have a look for Cédric Gracia's mountain bike crash video.
He breaks his pelvis and severs his femoral artery, and his mate saves his life by jamming his knee into his groin.
So anything to slow the bleeding is going to help.
Have a look for Cédric Gracia's mountain bike crash video.
He breaks his pelvis and severs his femoral artery, and his mate saves his life by jamming his knee into his groin.
The chart of time versus pain/damage I can vouch for is pretty accurate up to about the two hour mark having spent ninety minutes with an inflatable one clamped around a thigh whilst having K-wire removed from an ankle under local anesthetic. It should of been a five minute job but the burk who put them in had cut them off flush with the bone, so ended up getting an unexpected masterclass in anatomy staring at the inside of my vivisected foot whilst a nurse dashed away to fetch a bone chisel & hammer. Towards the end as they sewed me up I was mentally prepared to knaw my foot off!
i'd say if someone jams a knee into your groin you'll know what i mean..... . although bleeding to death puts a 100% stop to any plans of having kids, too..... (not trying to make fun but it sounds painful on top of the accident already!)
you get told to errm check "things" are out the way before you smash you knee in the geezers groin.....its more in the pocket of the groin though rather than in it as such, you can use your foot and body weight or fist too... the only thing with this method is it can cause more problems if the pelvis if broken, then again, that or bleed out????
Can anyone point me to the right place, or even better a good ebay auction? Something elegant for EDC to complement my FAK.
The most important thing BigM is do you know how they work, have you ever used one or seen it done????? once you know this you can adapt things around you if needed if the brown stuff hits the fan???
this one works well though....
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Black-Com...Collectables_Militaria_LE&hash=item27f033ed16
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Black-Com...Collectables_Militaria_LE&hash=item27f033ed16
Excellent advice: - Get trained before you even think about buying or using medical kit in general.
Well I have been through more than one medical traning during my scout years not to mention beeing a first aider at my work place. Add to that my fascination with anything tactical, survival and generally usefull in life (and my previous girlfriend was a vet, I have seen more than one pumping heart ).
I have a little FAK in my EDC bag that include proper bandaids, quickclot and a disposable CPR mask. It's not for paper cuts but for situations where improvising would be difficult and a waste preciuos time. So when someones leg gets crushed in a car accident or get his arm severed by a falling sheet of glass, it would be handy to have something purpose made. Don't worry, I knoe not to put it on someones neck...
).I have a little FAK in my EDC bag that include proper bandaids, quickclot and a disposable CPR mask. It's not for paper cuts but for situations where improvising would be difficult and a waste preciuos time. So when someones leg gets crushed in a car accident or get his arm severed by a falling sheet of glass, it would be handy to have something purpose made. Don't worry, I knoe not to put it on someones neck...
lol....fair one mate...
the one i did a link above for is good,you do need to know how to use it though, if you do it wrong then it wont work and will come undone under pressure, if no one noticed it could kill the patient...its been done before by trained combat medics which is why i asked. basically just over loop so it makes a "C" shape for closed, velcro it up and twist the handle until the blood stops or the person screams like hell normally works, secure the handle very securely with the velcro tab,leave it on until a doctor takes it off, write a "T" on the forhead with the local Date and Time in permey pen if you have one..
jobs a fish...
in all reality you will never use it though, and if you do it will be as a splint because of a broken leg ect...
best of luck though mate.
regards.
chris.
I have just been told that "We don't put the knee into the groin anymore" just after I stuffed my knee into our unsuspecting volunteer's groin to immediately deal with a fake catastrophic bleed injury to a lower limb whilst getting out my CAT. How we laughed afterwards.
Surprised to see how few posts or references there are to Tourniquets on the forum.
So bumping this thread.
If we look at what we do , we use ( play? ) with very sharp tools under force in often hard to get too places.
I'm sure we all try to plan our cuts and avoid bloodlines but I wonder if we take a Tourniquet with our FAK either for ourselves or others?
Maybe we need a little thread resurrection to cover this off and talk all things related.
Big blades causes by sharp tools can be easy to achieve. Harder to deal with.
Who owns a Tourniquet , who has used one , lessons learnt , good models , good practice etc
So bumping this thread.
If we look at what we do , we use ( play? ) with very sharp tools under force in often hard to get too places.
I'm sure we all try to plan our cuts and avoid bloodlines but I wonder if we take a Tourniquet with our FAK either for ourselves or others?
Maybe we need a little thread resurrection to cover this off and talk all things related.
Big blades causes by sharp tools can be easy to achieve. Harder to deal with.
Who owns a Tourniquet , who has used one , lessons learnt , good models , good practice etc
I carry one on me (or the outside of my daysack if carried), one inside my IFAK and one inside my main first aid kit.
In the military world there is an argument to carry 4 - explosions can cause lots of amputations/wounds at once.
In our world? If we manage to give ourselves 4 arterial bleeds at once then we probably deserve an award of some kind.
Two is one, one is none. And then I have a spare to use on someone else.
