Civilian use of tourniquets saves lives and a lot of them.
Average tourniquet time for these patients was about 77 minutes. After multivariable analysis, the non-tourniquet group had almost six times greater odds of death than the group of patients who received a tourniquet (adjusted odds ratio: 5.86).
“This is the first time that we were actually able to prove the survival benefit of using the tourniquet in the civilian population,” said lead study author Pedro Teixeira, MD, FACS, of the University of Texas at Austin, Dell Medical School.
Civilian tourniquet use associated with six-fold reduction in mortality
This is great. A simple and inexpensive device that you can carry will give somebody injured (even you) a chance of living six times greater than not having a tourniquet. I want you to pay attention to the 77 minute time because it is important and an eye opener: An untreated mayor injury to an extremity main artery will kill your in as short a time as 4 to 5 minutes. The wound that has killed and will kill bullfighters is a rupture of the femoral by a well place horn. Some bullfighters did not even make it to the first aid station inside the plaza, many barely managed to be placed inside the ambulance that took them to the hospital.
We are talking that a wound that can kill a human being under 10 minutes, can be successfully controlled and life extended long enough to take that person to a hospital for emergency life-saving surgery.
And again, I will send you over Recon Medical because they have great tourniquets and it is the one I have around me all the time. But you get a decent brand and carry, I don’t care which, just have it with you.