Tourniquets

pabearhunter said:

I guess you would call it common SENSE. If the leg is destroyed from the knee down and a tourniquet is placed above the knee to stop the blooding then you would never release it. If it is a bullet wound with no exit you can stick your finger in it !

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Common sense is knowing that you don't release one on your own... :W:

Ya, unless in a triage situation where you need to address other issues prior to treating significant hemmorhage a tq should not be released once placed.

If you place it to stop bleeding while you move the patient to a safer area, address breathing or airway issues, or deal with more critical patients, then releasing it to treat by compression is an option. Honestly though, that is really getting beyond what one should learn from an internet post, and moving into some pretty advanced emergency care.

Conversation is a good one to have, though. If it raises awareness and encourages people to learn or update skills it is well worth having. For sure it has encouraged me to revisit my plans, skills, and training. Thanks for starting it, Brian.

Well, I'm no doctor but when i went through my basic combat first aid training in the service I was taught that a tourniquet was the line of defense if you have a major arterial bleed as in femoral or probably brachial. If you have one of these you will know it if you are even awake still (look it up!). In this case, you will be dead in minutes. Hence, unless your SOS button puts you in contact with supernatural rescuers, they won't do you much good except to collect the body. So yes, I had an improvised cord tourniquet before and I just bought a RATS tourniquet because they say it's effective and it's very simple. Again, though, I'm no doctor. I just went through the basic NOLS training and the instructor said not to loosen the tourniquet ever because this will release blood clots. In a wilderness situation I'm sure the limb in question would be a goner by the time you made it to a hospital. Again, these are only for use when you are a goner in minutes if you don't use one. Otherwise, I have lots of gauze for pressure. In the NOLS course they taught us to restrict some of the blood flow by putting a tight wrapping on the gauze padding.