Should every doctor and nurse and citizen have an emergency medicine kit in their home and in their car trunk. It is probably not a bad idea at all.
For detailed information on how to put together an emergency kit, please see the outstanding Podcast 117 – Everyday Emergency Kits with Keith Conover
February 10, 2014 by Dr. Scott Weingart from Dr. Weingart’s incredibly EmCrit site.
Dr. Conover has PDFs on his Everyday-Emergency Kit and his Daypack Medical Kit.
One thing that every emergency kit should have is the CAT tourniquet made by North American Rescue [See some Amazon reviews (Reference (1)) I have placed in Resources after this post].
Once you have purchased your CAT tourniquet, it is critical that you practice using it.
And you can download two training videos, C-A-T® GEN 7 ONE HANDED APPLICATION and C-A-T® GEN 7 TWO HANDED APPLICATION, from North American Rescue Training Videos. You can also review the two videos on the North American Rescue YouTube channel.
I am a certified Red Cross Instructor for First Aid/CPR/AED and currently give courses in these topics for churches and civic groups. If your group would like information on how to schedule any one of these three courses, please e-mail me at doctortomcpr@tomwademd.net. I also have a brief 90 minute talk on how to assemble your own emergency kit. Use the same email as above to schedule the brief talk.
BleedingControl.org shows us how to save lives by stopping external hemorrhage of an accident or mass casualty at the scene.
Every emergency first aid kit should have
But before reviewing Stop The Bleed – Save A Life, consider the following excerpts from Reference (1) (p 66) :
Tourniquets in the civilian setting
The wounding agents are usually different in battlefield
and civilian trauma, but the lessons learned regarding
hemorrhage control and optimal resuscitation are not.
Recently, the American College of Surgeons Committee
on Trauma and the U.S. Department of Transportation
working group evaluated the evidence for external hemorrhage
control measures.2 The group’s conclusions on tourniquets were that [emphasis added to one through three]:(1) commercial windlass-type tourniquets should be used in the prehospital setting for the control of significant extremity hemorrhage when direct pressure is ineffective or impractical,
(2) improvised tourniquets should be used only if no commercial device is available, and
(3) a tourniquet that has been properly applied in the prehospital setting should not be released until the patient has reached definitive care.
The recommendations on hemostatic
agents were that:(1) topical hemostatic agents should be used in combination with direct pressure for the control of significant hemorrhage in the prehospital setting when sustained direct pressure is ineffective
or impractical, and(2) topical hemostatic agents in a
gauze can be used to enhance wound packing.
Be sure and download the 16 page pdf booklet, Stop The Bleed – Save A Life.
What follows are excerpts from the booklet but but be sure to download the whole thing:
2
6
Resources:
(1) Amazon Reviews of the CAT tourniquet:
1.0 out of 5 starsVery outdated tourniquets
By Amazon Customer on September 4, 2015
Verified Purchase
I purchased three Combat Application Tourniquets from the noted vendor in 2013, not long after the Boston Marathon bombings. The actual maker of the CAT is North American Rescue. I was under the assumption these were up-to-date devices. Earlier this year here in NH, it was discovered that a couple of EMS units purchased CAT’s that were defective via on-line sources and turned out to be counterfit. Concerned I too might have counterfits I contacted North American Rescue. I sent the CAT’s to their SC facility and received word today they were genuine but not the current generation. The generation sold to me by Lynx Defense is Gen I which was dicontinued in 2004. Generation II production began in 2005. The current version is Generation VI. For those of you looking for the most current version of the CAT, I would recommend purchasing from North American Rescue directly.
1 Comment 12 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?5.0 out of 5 starsmust have for trauma kit
By 21st centuryman on November 28, 2013
Verified Purchase
Look, it you are going to have a tactical trauma kit you must have at least one of these in your kit, and its just that simple. Don’t belive me, then just look at all the lives that were saved at the Boston bombing by people using tourniquets. This is about as good a one as you can buy,
Comment 2 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?5.0 out of 5 starsRange bag necessity
By Bruce K. Butcher on September 6, 2013
Verified Purchase
Assuming you don’t pass out, you can definitely manage to get this thing to work on yourself using just one hand. It is heavy duty and high quality. I keep it in my range bag and hope to never have to use it.
Comment 2 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?5.0 out of 5 starsSolid Tourniquet
By Greg on May 22, 2014
Verified Purchase
I purchased this particular tourniquet on the recommendation of several instructors. I have had the opportunity to check out several of the popular models and have found this one to be the best made and easiest to use. The other popular models have buckles and straps with various design flaws that this one does not suffer from. The most important thing is learning the skills to properly apply a tourniquet.
(2) Hartford Consensus Compedium [Full Text PDF]. Vol 100, No. 15, Bulletin of the American College of Surgeons, Sept 2015.