Pediatric Improvised Pant Leg Tourniquet

It’s always better to have proven, dedicated medical equipment in an emergency.

Our primary plan is always to use a commercially available tourniquet with medical evidence it works, supported by human studies. However, at some point in your life, you will be someplace where you simply won’t have that equipment available or won’t have enough of it and you will need to improvise.

When proper medical supplies are not readily available, Dr. Shertz’s emergency plan is to use the child’s own pant leg to improvise a tourniquet. The video demonstrates the technique on a 9-year old girl. The improvised pediatric tourniquet is confirmed with a Doppler ultrasound, proving the blood to the limb is occluded. Most importantly, the 9-year old tightens the tourniquet herself to a level sufficient to stop blood flow, without any complaining, crying, whining, or tapping out.