Posted on 01/29/2023 3:34:50 PM PST by BenLurkin
Following the mass shooting that killed 11 people in Monterey Park, a local hospital is hoping to save lives by teaching people how to help those with traumatic injuries.
In a demonstration called, “Stop the Bleed,” lessons are taught on how to use a tourniquet to stop life-threatening blood loss.
“Every time you hear something tragic like this on the news, it sparks you to say, ‘Well, what can I do?'” said Belen Mackenzie, trauma program director at Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center. “This came from the realization that people were not necessarily dying from the gunshot wound itself or the injury itself, but the bleeding out.”
“Hemmorage is what kills you,” said Dr. Michael Jimenez, medical director of trauma at Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center. “You have massive, uncontrolled bleeding, so seconds and minutes matter.”
“If there’s a bullet hole, pack the wound and hold pressure,” Jimenez explains. “The goal for this compression is to stop the mass hemorrhage by compressing the vessels, the arteries and the veins.”
If the bleeding is still uncontrollable, use a tourniquet, said Jimenez.
For a head wound, you should not put the tourniquet around the neck.
I’ve got a story to share.
I’m in college, and have a roommate. One night, he gets into an argument with his girlfriend, gets really drunk and decides to take his frustrations out on the plate glass window.
If he had just put his fist through it, it would have been bad enough. But does this chopping motion and slices his forearm down to the bone.
I can still picture him turning around, screaming, while blood spurts all over the walls. I jumped up and grabbed his arm to staunch the flow and I remember it felt like grabbing hamburger - he had cut all the ligaments.
He’s drunk, bigger than me and I’m holding on as we both stagger out into the hall. Finally he drops to the floor and we get a tourniquet on him. He stayed conscious all the way to surgery. the EMTs said if he hadn’t been drunk he would likely died from shock.
It’s a good thing to know, as is CPR. I think everyone who is able should learn these potentially life-saving measures. It just takes the desire to learn them and some practice, and you can save a life.
I received training on these measures, and it is not a big deal to learn them. If you were in a Scout program — or, certainly, the military — chances are you’ve had this instruction. I was in both, and also took a semester-long college course in First Aid. Check with your local Red Cross, as they may offer a class in these very critical — yet not difficult — life-saving measures. The first rule of thumb for you, the person faced with applying these measures in a real situation, is DO NOT PANIC. Go to your training, and get the job done.
Thanks for posting this.
Bad practice with a neck wound.
I always carry 3 ft. of 550 paracord in case.
Also, Benadryl for bees and ticks.
Beretta for human problems.
I was going to say much the same-I had medical training, but also learned those things in the military, but...even before that, the Boy Scouts.
There used to be millions of young men who knew what to do, or at least had an idea of what to do in a medical emergency. And it wasn’t to pull out your cell phone and call 911. And they knew that because they had been in the Boy Scouts.
But the homosexualization and feminization of the Boy Scouts has made that a thing of the past.
Yup.
But sure cure for a headache. ;)
I am signed up for such a class taking place next month, thru the USCCA…
Excellent!
Good reminder
No, no, NO!
Tourniquets are dangerous, they’ve been saying the last few years.
Instead, you’re supposed to do CPR, to pump the last remaining blood out of the wound!
Don’t you watch TV shows?!?
Ditto. Scouts & military first aid; more later, to keep up with changes.
Even in later grammar school they taught basics, during the 50s: The “Three Bees”: Blood; Breathing; Bones, in that order.
Bleeding out will kill faster than not breathing; broken bones are low on the list of death causes.
Probably a good idea.
Check out STOP THE BLEED courses in your area. Not very long, free. We have a tourniquet in each car and one in the first aid box in the house.
In retrospect, it wasn’t much to know, but then again, it doesn’t take much to render effective life-saving action.
Yup.
If it’s the crook who is wounded that seems like the perfect placement to me.
And make sure it’s tight!
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