How many people on /k/ actually know how to make a tourniquet? And I don't mean just in principle, everyone knows you gotta squeeze to stop the flow of blood, but how many could do it without fumbling with it for the first 10-20 seconds, either with a real tourniquet or even with a tie and a stick?
>>65339306I just avoid getting shot so I don't need a tourniquet
>>65339306I feel like when the time comes I'll be highly motivated and will figure it out quickly
I bought a few tourniquets. They're wrapped up in plastic. If I remove one and test it out, is it still good or do I need to throw it away?
>>65339306i knew at some point in time, but forgot. I'd like to have one just in case though.
>>65339316Wouldn't you find such things out by removing the plastic and testing it?
>>65339320>dude, just expend a third of your tourniquet supply:/
>>65339316Should be fine. The plastic is some of them will degrade if left in the sun but that's all.Even if you did need to chuck it (you don't), it'd be worth it to familiarise yourself with them
>>65339316Remove it, the last thing you want is to fuck around with a wrapper when you're (or someone else is) bleeding out of an artery.>test it outNo. Keep one for training but don't fuck around with TQs you intend to actually use.
>>65339316>>65339327Tourniquets are single use bu non sterile. Think about it, if a tourniquet is being used the limb as most likely been contaminated so tourniquets need to not be dirty not exactly sterile. Inhave tourniquets fron the army still steapped to my rifles and wider 'EMT' style tourniquets (seperate from the slimmer 'combat' style tourniquets) and RATS tourniquets are fake and gay larp gear. You can re use and extensively test any velcro band/windlass bar tourniquet.>Try and see the pressure it takes to cut off your thigh!
>>65339316Technically they are one-time-use because they lose strength after that. In practice they are still good for at least 5-10 practice uses. This applies only to genuine CAT tourniquets which are somewhat expensive. Chinkshit is so hilariously bad. You WILL die if you try to use one of them. So bad I couldn't even use them as training tools because it is physically impossible to get them tight enough to stop blood flow in a leg on an average sized person.
A friend of man had to use one (not military related, he was doing first aid at a festival, and on the last day the stage fell on someone's hand), he had the tourniquet on hand and had the training but in the heat of the moment it took him a few seconds to actually open the tourniquet and put it on the other guy. Pic unrelated, it was one of those tourniquets you got to unscrew first.I never actually had to put one on for real, but if it happens I'll probably think some dumb question like>Shit am I supposed to turn it clockwise or counterclockwise?Even though I know it doesn't matter one bit
>>65339353You train with a tourniquet by getting them tight enough to actual cut the bloodflow? Do you use a dummy or are you using someone else? I was told it's very painful, and when I trained with it we basically just gave it a couple of squeezes to get it tight but not to the point the limb changed color.
>>65339351>You can re use and extensively test any velcro band/windlass bar tourniquet. They do genuinely lose tensile strength each time, provided you're tightening them down as much as you should be. I should have mentioned that. Everyone says go until you stop feeling a pulse and then do one more half turn. That's some pussy retard fudd shit that will get you killed in a combat environment. You ratchet that bitch down as hard as you can. It is supposed to fucking hurt. Why? Because if you're only just barely past the point of being tight enough to stop pulses, you run the risk of having that tourniquet loosen as you or your patient moves around. No, you will not cause nerve damage. You will cause some bruising and, if you're really unlucky, maybe theoretically some muscle injury (I have never seen this happen even with roid ragers doing it). People like to worry about nerve damage but they're hard to damage with compression like that, they hurt like hell but it's not serious.>>65339348>Keep one for training but don't fuck around with TQs you intend to actually use.Also yeah, this. If you have three tourniquets, one becomes your designated trainer, and the other two stay unused. Take them out of the damn plastic wrap though.
What the fuck is everyone on about in this thread, tourniquets, even CATs are just fancy belts, the synthetic fibers dont stretch or degrade from being used. Just slap that shit on your thigh and try it out.
>>65339369The limb will probably not change color. It takes hours for lasting damage to occur. It will also not hurt that bad if you stop at the point of flow cutting off. We used to do tourniquet races where we'd strap one tourniquet around each leg to the point of cutoff, then run. This anecdote also highlights why this point of stopping flow is not enough, having our muscles pump like that got blood flowing again. It will hurt like hell if you did it right. Do not train on a dummy if you can help it, it's actually very different IMO from how one operates on a human. The key is not in the twisting, but in getting it really tight before you ever start twisting. The proper way to do this doesn't really work on a dummy, I think.
>>65339373Somebody (You) has clearly never seen what a bin full of trainers starts to look like after a while :^)I am specifically talking about CATs btw. European models may or may not degrade like that, I really couldn't say.
>>65339373CATs absolutely do get loose and even break (the windlass usually) after a while, if you're training with a tq you plan to use you're an actual honest to God retard.
>>65339306I wear one as a belt. You're all notrainings who would put one on any booboo and make the person lose their fucking arm.
>>65339316It's fine to use a few times. If you bought a bunch you probably got some chink knockoffs so I would definitely test them. Fully wrap and tighten one around a stick and jerk it around to see if it holds or snaps.
>>65339446>make the person lose their fucking armWhat niggerhell do you live in that it takes 3 hours for an ambulance to arrive?
>tourniquetWhat if you get shot in the neck?
>>65339521
>>65339521Hemostatic gajze like >>65339530I think in non-combat situation the official recommendation now is to pack the wound with gauze and only use tourniquet if the bleeding doesn't stop or if there's a foreign object protuding from the wound.
>>65339521I assume you meant this as some sort of gotcha but if you get lucky then you can absolutely plug a hole in the neck by shoving your thumb or some gauze into the hole and pressing hard. Just look at that guntuber who had his .50 cal explode and send the bolt through his jugular.
>>65339365i dont see the point in something like this. I understand the self-strangling ones for fast applications, but what you posted is substituted by any sort of cloth and a piece of wood or even a structurally strong pen.
>>65339534Damn, that guy is pretty chill about having a bleeding neck wound, still wearing his sunglasses as well.
>>65339544Half joke, half serious. I've seen this webm and a neck shot seems like a death sentence >>63770918>>65339530>>65339534Very informative, thank you.
>>65339567>>65339543>and a neck shot seems like a death sentenceYou can absolutely pack a carotid wound, your body is cleverly made and a lot of important things have a backup. The other side of the external/internal carotid can supply your brain just fine in an emergency.Our TCCC course taught us an "improved" self-tensioning version of this technique.Behold my mspaint masterpiece
>>65339789You wrap up over the shoulder at the end? I guess anyone hit in the neck is nlt going to move much anyway.
>>65339843Yeah this is assuming they're gonna be transported, but even if they have to evac on their own it helps ensure everything stays in place.
>>65339306Took a stop the bleed course 6 years ago, have active first aid cert from last year and wilderness aid cert from last week
Who cares? You're never going to use one IRL anyway.
>>65339306what kind of total retard can't use a tourniquet? Like, even if you can't fucking read, never took any kind of class or course, you can find hundreds of videos on youtube about this and just try it. It's that easy.
>>65339890I already have.
>>65339890You say that up until the point till you have to.
>>65339306Have practiced since I was a teenager, had to apply one twice. I keep a CAT in my backpack with the rest of my trauma kit and the Epi-pens. There's a second one in the center console of my car, and a third in the lining of the wagon we take with us for the kid's stuff. All of my belts are strong enough to work in an emergency but I'd rather not fuck around with that if I don't have to. I forget shit a lot and always having one somewhere nearby is a good counter to that.>>65339316Tourniquets are not a sterile item. You don't need to keep them wrapped and it's better if you don't. I highly recommend you keep it with a large bandanna, a Sharpie, gloves and some big sterile gauze packs or a gauze roll in a waterproof container. If you need a TQ, odds are extremely good that you will need to pack a wound. Frankly you're much, much more likely to need to pack and compress than ever break out the TQ. If you do use one, use the sharpie to mark a big fuck-off "T" on their forehead and (if they still have one) hand. That lets EMTs know what's up. Also, you are likely going to have to physically restrain and/or talk down and constantly supervise the patient. Properly applied, tourniqets are at minimum very unpleasant. On a particularly deep wound or a big artery they hurt a *lot*. Patients in shock will really really want to take them off. So don't plan to care for multiple casualties if you have to break out the TQ.>>65339521Pack and pray you fucking retard.
>>65340287You should also write the time you put the tourniquet in somewhere on the person's body (or if you use a "real" tourniquet they usually have a spot for it), it helps the medic out later.
>>65339789You need to be really careful using that technique. If it's not done right then as they lower their arm the dressing can stop applying pressure evenly over the wound and instead begin applying it just to the lower margin of the wound, essentially pulling it open.
>>65339890motorcycles are still legal and thought it’s probably interfering with natural selection the story my dad about a dumbass biker who got his scrawny biker leg got ripped off above the knee after a crashing in front of my dad. Dad was 19 and saved him with everyone’s tshirts
>>65339890A TQ around the neck will stop all bleeding.
>>65339306Ive practiced doing it 1 handed a bit and I'm pretty confident that if I ever get shot in the arm my best bet is just to blow my brains out and get it over with
>>65339306ive tied em before, key to know if you're doing it right is that the patient should start bitching that you're hurting them more than the gunshot or whatever did. first aid classes are great, and if you've got a hobby that can put someone in the dirt, you should have already taken a few.
