Stop The Bleed Month

May is Stop the Bleed Month. And May 23rd is National STOP THE BLEED Day.

(Yes, those seem to be "rival" web sites...)

Perhaps with that in mind, Tamara had a post yesterday (The largest window for error...) in which she linked to an article about gun safety vis à vis administrative gun handling, and said that, if you're going to carry a gun, you should have a "blow out kit" with you. (SayUncle linked, and, this being the Internet, predictably, derp ensured in comments.)

I've written about first aid and (especially) trauma care and training before, and on this very topic in The Clue Meter: Tourniquets Save Lives.

In that post I included some videos of how to apply a tourniquet, including one I reproduce here, how to apply a field expedient tourniquet:


As to which tourniquet to carry, the two standards seem to be the CAT (Gen 7+) and the SOF-T (Gen 4+); the advantages of one over the other seem be minor and due as much to personal preference of the professional you are speaking to, as well as to incremental improvements in one or the other. Similar tourniquets are likely to mimic the style or design, but use cheaper materials.

There is at least one "bargain" tourniquet that is essentially a long rubber band; in formal testing it was rated as better than nothing -- barely. (The sales pitch is cool, "Tighten until the diamonds are squares and the ovals are circles"; just doesn't seem to work as well in real application.)

Research:

• Efficacy of Pre-hospital Application of Tourniquets and Hemostatic Dressings to Control Traumatic External Hemorrhage. Opens a .pdf document from EMS.gov, a site at the National Institutes of Health.

GET TRAINING!

You need to take classes; even if you master applying a tourniquet by watching YouTube videos, there are other things you'll need to know. So where do you find such training? After all, you might not know a handy Ambulance Driver who happens to be conducting a class on the subject.

• BleedingControl.org has a Find A Class page.
• The Stop the Bleed Monthweb site does too: Find Training.
• As does the National STOP THE BLEED Day web site: Get Trained.
• FEMA also has some suggestions: Stop the Bleed | Homeland Security
• The Firearms Training Hub has a page listing Medical classes; among others, Dark Angel Medical has classes nationwide. Including one local to me next week...

If you're not comfortable buying  emergency medical/trauma care supplies off of Amazon -- and stories of counterfeit merchandise abound -- some reputable sources include:

• Chinook Medical Gear, Inc.
• Tactical Medical Solutions for Military and First Responders
• First Aid Kits | First Aid Supplies | MyMedic
• Adventure® Medical Kits

This is another item in the "Better to have it (and know how to use it!) but never need it, than to need it and not have it and/or not know how to use it" category.