Tourniquets: Real World Experience

[foodpoison]

are you still supposed to mark time on the victims fore head?

 

[SpecialJ79]

are you still supposed to mark time on the victims fore head?

Mark a "T" and time, yes...

 

[gamer_jim]

I would love to take an emergency medicine class. I'm not looking for EMS certification or whatever. What I want is if I had a medic bag, what's the best way to keep someone from bleeding to death until paramedics arrive?

 

[BigDaddy]

Limbs have been successfully tourniqueted and returned to full use with over twelve hours of properly applied tourniquets.

Actually 16 hours. I will try to get a copy of that article because that is amazing. I also found an article where only 17% of tourniquets were actually occluding arterial flow. That was from a study done in Iraq, not Bubba improvising a tourniquet after "watch this"

I wasn't asking if or how or when to place a tourniquet, but the discussion is useful none the less. Thanks to all that responded.

 

[Dmacri25]

I know how to use them but have never had too. I keep one in my car incase of an accident.

 

[Tconfo]

In the course of my career I have used them quite a few times. Arterial bleeds mostly and then there's a few that like to pick at their dialysis shunt and form a gaping hole. Those are fun. The city does not issue standard tourniquets so we usually use kravats and a tounge depressor if we have one. Most times a pen but there have been a few times I have had to get creative

 

[pwoolford]

I have tourniquets in all my range bags and vehicles. I'd rather have them around and never need one instead of the other way around.

 

[TxAggie]

Maybe. We've done some testing with pens. A few broke but most worked.



Whatever you do, make sure you secure it and monitor it. The biggest risk for improvised tourniquets is having them loosen up.







Not to pick on small details, but they all should completely stop blood flow. I'm pretty sure the move to a wider strap was to reduce pain.

I've read a few (maybe one or two) articles that demonstrate slowing combined with a pressure dressing will help stop bleeding where a PD alone won't do the trick, but I'll cede your point as you keep up with it much more than I do. My main point is that tourniquets are becoming much more accepted. Thanks for keeping me honest.

 

[Ender]

I got out of the Marines a few years ago and after a while I missed the military so I got back in but switched to the army nat guard where I retrained to be 68W (combat medic). Went through the school earlier this year before I started grad school and a lot has changed with military medical training. To answer the original question if evac was delayed a few hours I would probably leave the tourniquet on there as long as it was a deliberate tourniquet and not hasty. If evac is delayed for a lot longer than a few hours we are supposed to attempt to convert to a pressure dressing. Not sure if everyone realizes this but when we put on a pressuring dressing we pack the wound with combat gauze (the quikclot kind) first. When I first came in the military it used to be that we only put tourniquets on as a last resort and assumed they would lose the limb but experience in Iraq and Afghanistan has shown that not to be the case. This is also assuming it is hole in a limb and not amputation. Combat gauze is very effective and combined with a pressure dressing will handle the majority of wounds to limbs that aren't amputations.

 

[OLM-Medic]

I've read a few (maybe one or two) articles that demonstrate slowing combined with a pressure dressing will help stop bleeding where a PD alone won't do the trick, but I'll cede your point as you keep up with it much more than I do. My main point is that tourniquets are becoming much more accepted. Thanks for keeping me honest.

Yeah, slowing and direct pressure in theory would slow bleeding more. That's why they used to recommend pressure points. It's just if you're going to use a tourniquet, it's because the blood loss is life threatening and cannot be stopped by direct pressure in a timely manner. You use it to stop the bleeding. No need to worry about losing a limb. You've got a few hours.