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| Image Credit: Staff Sgt. Terri Reece |
Western University of Health Sciences
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| This post was peer reviewed. Click to learn more. |
As we walk onto the scene wearing our bulletproof vests, we see a spray of blood up the white wall of the apartment, leading us to our patient. He is holding direct pressure on his arm where he had been shot. As soon as the pressure is removed, bright red, pulsatile blood sprays from the wound. Quickly, the paramedics I am riding with that day apply a tourniquet to the patient’s arm, and the bleeding is stopped.
Tourniquets have been used in the military through many wars, although their use was inconsistent, which led to poor outcomes for those with devastating limb injuries. At the start of the Iraq War, tourniquet use increased but was still inconsistent resulting in approximately 2% of soldiers dying from isolated limb exsanguination. There has been an increasing body of evidence showing favorable outcomes associated with tourniquet use. Due to the more consistent use of tourniquets through wartimes, exsanguination from isolated limb injuries is no longer considered a top cause of preventable death of US soldiers.[1]
