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: …
Massive hemorrhage is the leading cause of preventable death from injuries.
How much blood loss is too much?
In December 1970, the US military published data on 7,800 soldier and Marine casualties from the conflict in Vietnam. In that data, specifically 10% of combat fatalities were from extremity hemorrhage. This dataset would later form the first TCCC guidelines in 1996. With the widespread adoption of tourniquets by the US. Military in the early 21st Century, death from massive extremity hemorrhage is now unusual in combat. This improvement has lead to greater awareness of massive hemorrhage from “junctional areas” like the neck, axilla/armpit, and groin, areas not amenable to circumferential tourniquet placement. To be facile at controlling massive hemorrhage, wound packing is a needed but often neglected skill set.
Fatal Penetrating Neck Wounds 🕖 Reading Time, 4 minutes 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 …
A recent French article voiced a concern for overzealous pre-hospital tourniquet use; the data is not as supportive of their conclusions as the article makes it seem. Researched and written by Mike Shertz, MD/18D, not AI 🕖 Reading Time, 9 …
UPDATE 2024: Since our original STAT “tourniquet” experience showing it was an ineffective device for hemorrhage control, there have been two peer-reviewed, published studies finding similar results. Researched and written by Mike Shertz, MD/18D, not AI 🕖 Reading Time, 6 …
High-pressure water jet units deliver large volumes of water at very high pounds per square inch. Entry wounds can be small, but internal tissue damage extensive, similar to military rifles. BLUF: If the water jet is a bit further from …