QuikClot

Posted on March 5, 2021March 19, 2021 by Brian McLaughlin — 2 Comments

How to Pack a Wound in 6 Easy Steps

Last week we discussed why learning to pack a wound is an essential skill for stopping life threatening bleeds. If you haven’t seen it yet, I recommend giving the article a read so you’ll better understand what we’re talking about in this one.

Tourniquets Can’t Fix Everything. Why You MUST Learn Wound Packing

Tourniquets save so many lives due in part to how simple they are to apply. Wound packing is equally simple and arguably just as important as TQs.

Posted on February 28, 2021February 28, 2021 by Brian McLaughlin — Leave a comment

Tourniquets Can’t Fix Everything. Why You MUST Learn Wound Packing

Tourniquets (TQ) have an especially big flaw: They only work on your arms and legs. What if you’re cut somewhere else? What’s your plan for that?

Carrying a CAT for emergencies is great until you trip into a pine tree branch and punch a hole in your neck.

People seem to gravitate to the tourniquet as the only thing they need for bleeding control, but while the TQ is important and effective, you can’t use it to treat other injuries. (Unless we’re talking about the SWAT-T. But I’m staying off that soapbox, for now.)

Here are two good reasons why learning to wound pack is just as important as tourniquet application:

Posted on December 11, 2020 by Brian McLaughlin — Leave a comment

What If You Don’t Have a Tourniquet or Trauma Kit? Bleeding: Part 2

This article will focus on what other steps can be taken to reduce blood loss when you are caught in a bad situation without gear. Now that we understand how to apply direct pressure and why it’s probably better then trying to make a tourniquet, we can look at methods for increasing our effectiveness.

This week will continue along with the theme of how to save a life without medical gear.

Wound Packing

If you have our Yellowstone Trauma Kit you’ll feel comforted to know it contains a roll of QuikClot, a hemostatic agent (makes blood clot quicker).

This is a handy item to have in a pinch, but if you don’t have any, what else can be done?

Research shows packing wounds with gauze, any gauze, is an effective way to control bleeding. All you need to do is make some.