I’ve started compiling videos to archive onto a USB which will then sit in a faraday bag inside of my safe. Quite a few of your videos will be on there in case of emergency!
I remember carrying 5-7 tourniquets in Afghanistan. One in each pocket on my limbs, one in my IFAK, one or two on my plate carrier and often an extra one on my gun belt. Our thinking was that we had a tourniquet for each limb, plus a few back ups for multiple amputations. I still keep 2-3 on my duty kit now that I've changed from a green uniform to a blue one since IEDs are no longer a part of my daily life. A couple of officers in my department have had cause to use them before.
You are an excellent teacher! Your videos give great visuals and you explain how to know if you're doing it right or wrong. Even your tips on how to pack the essentials are life savers, because you can react quicker to an emergency. I find you very easy to learn from because you are very thorough. I definitely don't say that about everyone. Thank you for these videos! I appreciate your work.
Just another great video from GBGB. In a world of people trying to be Navy SEALs 2.0 it is refreshing to get practical field advice from Josh again. Keep up the good work
I just wrote an answer to this video, and somehow it ended up on the intro to the Wilderness Medic video. I went to it and copied it and am pasting it here. I hope in the right place this time. I am a retired medic. What you have said is completely right when in a combat situation. I have never used a tourniquet as a medic outside combat. Again, outside combat situation I have always been successful stopping the bleeding without the use of a tourniquet. In training we were always told when you put a tourniquet on, the patient will loose their limb at that location. You are right, loosing an arm or leg is better than loosing a life, but the use of a tourniquet should be avoided at all cost, if it can be. We have blood clotting agents available in today's world that is way beyond the tourniquet, works better, works faster without the loss of an arm. I am surprised the US Military has not gone to them instead. In a true emergency even instant potato flakes will work as a blood clotting agent. "Infection?" you ask, consider saving the arm or life vs an infection which can be fought later if it gets infected. I am not a Dr. and I have not played one on TV. I have never had to use the potato flakes, but my son has, and he says it works great. Again, in training, they cut the Femoral Artery on a pig, applied the blood clotting agent and it stopped in seconds, thus saving the life of the pig. (who was probably butchered later for good old pig meat.) In short the word 'tourniquet' is a swear word in my vocabulary, I don't like them, and experience says we don't need them. Blood clotting agents are available, and you can learn how to use them on RU-vid, don't accept what I have said as training, or even a suggestion, Learn proper use through training somewhere else. I love your channel, and watch it often, Keep up the good work.
Thank you for your service, and it is good to see another former medic on here. As far as the notion that you will lose a limb if you put a tourniquet on, that is mostly incorrect. You have about a 6-hour window where limbs are generally salvageable. There are plenty of cases where they have been on longer, and the limb still survived. Additionally, we use tourniquets all the time in surgery for extended periods of time without a problem. When surgery is done on your hand, a tourniquet is placed throughout the surgery to keep blood out of the surgery site. Also, there are effective agents that either promote clotting or lessen the breakdown of clots, but they usually require some additional training to be used effectively for those significant bleeds. This is a higher likelihood that you will properly place a tourniquet after watching a youtube video compared to using hemostatic gauze.
6:49 Obligements for that Conventional fact, that helps drive one's survival mind forward. It stirred those fond '71-'74 memory chips of serving 1/504. As a Paratrooper ten years my senior, had said in his quote... ''Knowledge speaks, wisdom listens'' -Jimi Hendrix ''Your best fight in survival, is the one that never happened.'' ''We Protect and defend those lives we do not live.''
Hey Josh, maybe I missed something, but your CAT TQ looks like it’s placed directly over the joint (elbow) in your demo. But maybe I was just missing or misinterpreting something!
Do not apply a tourniquet on or below the Elbow or on or below the Knee, you can't compress the vein or artery enough to stop the bleeding because there are two bones there. The demo on the fake arm shows him putting it below the elbow. I am not sure why he didn't cover that rule of applying tourniquets, but I know he knows that.
Thats what i learned years ago too. However, my brother whose been a Paramedic by trade for almost 17 years now, has told me that the 2" above the wound is modern doctrine and because the constriction comes from all 360⁰ around the tourequet, that it will actually constrict those vessels inbetween those bones..... still hurts like hell though😅 But the joint thing still stands, not ON joints
Good video. I have a question. A lifetime ago I was taught at fort Knox Kentucky and basic and AIT that the tourniquet should be loosened every so often and tightened again. What is the time limit between these steps?
Not at all. That is outdated information. If you periodically loosen it, you are just slowly allowing someone or yourself to potentially bleed to death or lose enough volume that will push them or you over the edge in terms of hypovolemia. You need all the volume.
@@GrayBeardedGreenBeret thank you for the updated information. It could potentially keep me from making a life-threatening mistake in the future. Keep up the good work.
I had always heard never to remove a tourniquet once applied. I'm guessing you're saying to say it's okay to do, as long as you've controlled the bleeding further down the extremity? It would make sense, that loosening one tourniquet would allow pressure back on the bloodstream, thereby reopening the wound. LOL, "I actually don't know how to take these off"!
So traditionally, in most environments, a layperson (non-medic) should only be applying tourniquets. That being said, there are situations where medically trained individuals can THINK about taking off/lowering a tourniquet. After all, the best clot is the first one, and we don't want to risk any more of that life-sustaining red stuff from leaking out of the body.
So they do have pieces of clothing with tourniquets built in them; however, I can think of a couple of good reasons why this hasn’t been widely used in the military. First is a practical reason. Traditionally when you put on a tourniquet during the care under fire stage, you will want to put the tourniquet on “high and tight.” Because of how clothes work and that they can be loose and move throughout the body, there would be no way to efficiently ensure that the tourniquets would be properly placed in an effective part of the body. Additionally, when you carry pieces of gear, you want to be able to make the gear adapt to the situation that you are in. If a tourniquet is already sewn into the clothing, then it won't be easy to adjust the tourniquet to the situation. I believe some pessimistic people will say that it comes down to cost; however, I think the other reasons far outweigh the cost reasons. I hope that answers your question.
I used pants with a tourniquet in them. It was annoying in the same way that walking around in a safety harness is annoying. The pants were not cheap either. In theory it is a good idea but in practice it was not so practical.
