Stop the Bleeding

[nakattack]

just a warning for tourniquets, its taught in the army to apply first to extremeties if wound is bleeding. high and tight is what we're taught but this is with the understanding that next level care won't be over 6 hours away. 6 hours is the maximum time a tourniquet can be left on before it will cause your limb to basicly die, at 5 hours there will be damage to the extremetiy but not permanment. also after a few hours you need a trained medical professional to remove the tourniquet. that being said if your out in the woods and become injured and you don't know if you can't get to help within that 6 hour time frame judge the wound before you slap on a tourniquet. if it looks bad enough for one by all means but i've seen civilians use tourniquets too hastily for minor injuries. also in a shtf situation a tourniquet will probly mean loss of the limb in most cases. specially if a main artery is served, most likely death in fact. combat gauze has quick clot in it and probably should be applied first to see if that stops the bleeding. of course if your hit in the leg and your femoral is cut tourniquet it up.

possibile complications from leaving a tourniquet on for over a few hours then removing yourself is blood clots that could move into your major organs and kill you.

this is just what i remember from cls classes and first aid training so im not a expert as always just throwing my two cents in.

[nakattack]

oh also some of the military tourniquets are only 1 time use, so only have one or two sets for practice and don't use the others unless you need them.

[Climber]

Thanks for a really great thread. Such good info.

Jimmy

[goatlady]

Not meaning to be a "real" doomer here folks, but it seems to me the whole purpose of using a tourniquet is to stabalize the wound until more expert medical help can be obtained. What if that help just is NOT available? Hard decisions may have to be made, and best if they are already made and settled in your minds long before hand, I would think.

[Matt In Oklahoma]

Not meaning to be a "real" doomer here folks, but it seems to me the whole purpose of using a tourniquet is to stabalize the wound until more expert medical help can be obtained. What if that help just is NOT available? Hard decisions may have to be made, and best if they are already made and settled in your minds long before hand, I would think.

Yup, lots of hard choices have to be made

[Klayton]

Yup, lots of hard choices have to be made

If at all possible, remember when applying tourniquets, always try and save the joint.

You know, 2 inches above the bleed unless thats on the joint, if at all possible try tourniquet below joint (above bleed) to see if that will stop the bleed out. If that fails then go above the joint and the joint will have to be sacrificed as well...

[EX121]

I agree with what goatlady said about hard choices. But even if you don't think higher degree med help will be available. I know for my own peace of mind that I would want to know I did the most/best that I could. So if by applying a "T" stops the bleeding, ok. If there is no other help available after a couple of hours I'm going to loosen it and see what happens. If it stays stopped cool, if not then it plan b or c or whatever. If the person dies after I placed the "T" aleast I will know I did what I could.
Again it's another story if I have to do it on myself.
There was alocal college girl that got run over by a boat after she fell while water sking. She was aware enough to tell her friends how to put a tourniquet on her severed leg and the one that was nearly severed also. She survived. Pretty cool headed.

[nakattack]

there are things while the you do have a tourniquet to maybe increase the chance of the blood clotting. stuffing combat gauze in the wound with quick clot in it will help, but if it is a major artery that is servered theres not much chance of survival without higher medical care.

[Norcalprepper]

Thank you !great information!, I need to put A BOK in all my BOBs and my range bag, whats a good sight to Buy the Israeli style bandages and the CAT?

[Matt In Oklahoma]

Thank you !great information!, I need to put A BOK in all my BOBs and my range bag, whats a good sight to Buy the Israeli style bandages and the CAT?

right here at JRH on the bandages

http://www.jrhenterprises.com/category.sc;jsessionid=105CAE4B715BD002F396C0C2EFE16DF7.qscstrfrnt03?categoryId=2

The CAT at chinook medical supplies

http://search.chinookmed.com/search?category=search&template=search&templatehead=&templatebody=&templatefoot=&match=pattern&limitcategory=&type=store&searchtype=and&results=&keywords=tourniquets

[Norcalprepper]

Thank you sir!, love your Avatar by the way, says it all!

[Norcalprepper]

ordered 4 Izzie bandages and a CAT from Chinook, the Izzies are 6.10 each , great price!

[610Alpha]

ordered 4 Izzie bandages and a CAT from Chinook, the Izzies are 6.10 each , great price!

Thats the cost of the item not the total cost including shipping...I just priced what shipping would cost me from that site and it is HIGH...imo

With JRH they don't artificially lower the item price and jack up the shipping...they give you the price of the item and then you can email them for shipping cost. Their shipping cost is actual cost not inflated to make up for a low item price like some sites do. Plus we here on the forums like to support JRH Enterprises because of all the great info they have been giving away for FREE via podcasts, videos, and they operate the forum here which we all get to use to discuss all the various aspects of being Self-Sufficient.

[Matt In Oklahoma]

When this started I was looking for gauze, didnt see it and didnt want to waste any more time so I used the absorbency pad trimmed down with siccors in the kit. This isnt any big deal but just a tidbit of knowledge that i didnt have when i started and could be important for a major bleeding ordeal.