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Tourniquets: a thread by street medic Emma
1. This is an indispensable lifesaving tool that every protester should learn how to use and carry on them. But there are a lot of myths and misunderstandings surrounding them.
1. This is an indispensable lifesaving tool that every protester should learn how to use and carry on them. But there are a lot of myths and misunderstandings surrounding them.
2. It is a common myth that using a tourniquet guarantees the loss of the limb. Medical statistics today confirm that you're quite likely to keep the limb if you get to a hospital. Some people have even had a tourniquet on for over twelve hours and not lost a limb
3. Not that this is a guarantee, with any serious wound there are no guarantees. However, with an arterial bleed you can bleed out in as little as ninety seconds. Attempting another method to stop the bleed could be a deadly choice.
4. Which tourniquet? There is only one. The Combat Application Tourniquet (CAT) from North American Rescue. Only buy them directly from NA Rescue, people are selling counterfeits. It always costs $30, if someone is selling one cheaper it is definitely fake
5. The windlass, the part you turn, is the point of failure, that is why you should not use knockoffs. However, buy the cheap knockoffs and use them for practice so you don't wear out your real ones.
6. Application. Apply tourniquet at the highest point on the injured limb. Outdated practice says to apply it just above the injury, but the best outcome for the limb will always be to cut off circulation to the entire limb
7. I can't tell you in a tweet how to apply the tourniquet, you need to go to your local street medic collective and learn that in person, and then practice it on yourself a lot, until you can reliable do it in under ninety seconds
8. Make sure it's tight enough, there should be no pulse. Do *not* loosen it every so often, as outdated practice teaches. It is far better to just let the cells in that limb lie dormant for a few hours than to make them continually reactivate and then cut them off again
9. If it is not tight enough, you may only restrict venous and not arterial flow. If blood can get in but not out this can cause compartment syndrome. It is much better to have no blood at all for a few hours.
10. The patient must get to a hospital after having a tourniquet applied, as the next steps are far beyond the equipment of street medics. If they can't go to a local hospital for legal reasons, get them to a hospital out of state and have them carry no ID and use a fake name.
11. If I'm forgetting anything important, feel free to add to this thread.
