Pelvic fractures occur in 8% of major trauma patients. You can improvise a pelvic binder. 🕖 Reading Time, 3 minutes IED induced injuries resulting in traumatic lower limb amputation are associated with a 22% rate of pelvic fracture; half of …
MARCH: Massive Hemorrhage, Airway, Respiration, Circulation, Hypothermia Prevention
The easy to remember mnemonic MARCH reminds us of the priorities in treating casualties during TECC and TCCC situations. MARCH provides a framework to address immediate life threats and gives an organized approach to begin a casualty evaluation. The MARCH mnemonic is preferable to the ABCDE model because it takes into consideration the reason you need an airway and to be breathing is to circulate blood to the casualty’s brain. Recognizing that, the first step in our casualty evaluation should be to look for massive hemorrhage.
Once past massive hemorrhage, A-R-C is loosely approximated by A-B-C. H- is a reminder that a large number of traumatic casualties arrive at the emergency department or medical treatment facility hypothermic which dramatically increases their death rate.
The MARCH mnemonic can be applied to any patient, as the initial casualty evaluation usually rules out massive hemorrhage.
Recently, both a Special Forces Medic and a civilian fire paramedic asked me about a new hemostatic product being actively marketed on social media: SEAL Hemostatic Wound Spray. Like many things on social media, you have to check the veracity: …
🕖 Reading Time, 4 minutes Fatal Penetrating Neck Wounds Originally published Feb 25, 2023, but updated based on recent events and questions from students. This video of an attempted bank robbery in Brazil shows that some injuries are just too …
A Simple, Hands-On Hemorrhage Control Technique When Tourniquets Aren’t Available Researched and written by Mike Shertz, MD/18D, not AI 🕖 Reading Time, 5 minutes In our race to use tourniquets for controlling hemorrhage, we often lose sight of the value …
Co-TCCC considered changing the MARCH mnemonic to include resuscitation, or more specifically transfusion. Researched and written by Mike Shertz, MD/18D, not AI 🕖 Reading Time, 4 minutes In 2025, with the widespread use of blood started prehospital to resuscitate US …
Quick Tips on Tactical Casualty Care Topics Initially designed as 15 & 30-second posts for social media, these quick tips are a good refresher to TECC/TCCC concepts. Note: these hip pocket training videos were not professionally filmed like our online …