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Posted: 11/19/2005 8:02:48 PM EDT
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Need some advice from combat-experienced corpsman/medic and/or EMT who's "seen the elephant". What sort of package would you advise for emergency gunshot treatment, sort of a "blowout kit" to stabilize a non-fatal wound in advance of competent professional care? I know this sounds stupid, but when we talk of all our "SHTF" hardware, we usually don't think of what to do if we get pierced. I thought about this a lot when setting up a deer camp a few years ago -- what would we do if somebody screwed up big time and the embarrassing AD became a life-or-death situation? Appreciate knowledgeable answers or resource references. |
| AS far as I know quick clot is military only. In the future fire departments will get it. From what I hear it is still being tested. Great stuff from what I hear. AS far as your question. I would say for gun shot wounds it will depend where you get shot at. In the head dont worry about it your FUBARed. Alot of trauma dressings (1 inch thick, 6x8). 3 inch wide tape. Extremity wounds get a blood pressure cuff put it directly on top of the wound or just above (depends exactally where it is) pump it up enough to just stop the bleeding and no more. Gun shot to the chest, a ziplock bag tapped down on all sides but leave one corrner untaped to allow for air to escape this creates a flutter valve so air dont accumulate to collaspe a lung (goggle "occlusive dressing"). To the abdomen just alot of those thick trauma pads tapped down. Dont forget about applying pressure to the wounds. And as a back up for the blodd pressure cuff pack a belt as well (some times those damn things get a hole poked in them or just decide to go south). |
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Thanks to all -- very useful. Will advise if I can find more data on availability of Quick Clot. I have a source for imported powdered sulfa drugs much like the old GI medic issue. Any comments on usefulness of these to help prevent infection? Will sign off here -- thanks again! |
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OK -- I said I was done. One more entry, this from SOCNET by a poster who said he has used Quick Clot and believes in its value: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marine Recon corpsman (non-SARC) currently deployed. QuikClot is great shit, but you have to know how to use it correctly; it's not magic dust that you sprinkle on a wound and poof! bleeding stops. I did my QuikClot labs in the Operational Emergency Medicine (OEMS) course with Dr. J. Hagmann (sp?), which is a truly great cutting-edge special ops medical course I recommend to all if your command will pay for it. The final day is a live pig lab, first with surgical wounds and then a round of actual gunshot and grenade wounds. Everyone's pig gets a fully severed femoral artery with blood spurting everywhere, and QuikClot takes care of the problem in a few seconds. If, again, you use it correctly. Here are the steps: 1. Reach in with your fingers and tamponade the spurting artery. Use gauze, Kerlix, etc. to soak up and scoop out as much of the blood as possible. 2. Open up the QuikClot package and make sure none of it gets in anybody's eyes, though this isn't a huge risk since the stuff is granular rather than a powder. 3. Someone has to grasp the wound edges and pull up and outward, creating a small wound "bowl" into which the QuikClot is poured. 4. So, using expert timing and teamwork (if you have a helper or two available), simultaneously remove your finger from the artery and start pouring the QuikClot in using a back-and-forth method to ensure the entire bottom of the wound is covered. Continue pouring QuikClot until a dry layer appears, which means no blood is reaching that top layer. Generally you won't need more than half a packet to treat a single wound. 5. A pressure dressing or some sort of covering bandage is a good idea. The docs at your local surgical facility will have no trouble washing the QuikClot out. Contraindications--this stuff is for use on extremity injuries only. An ideal use is the one in "Blackhawk Down" where the guy's femoral artery retreated a little into the pelvis so a tourniquet couldn't be placed above the wound. Don't use it in abdominal or torso wounds; organs shouldn't be exposed to the substance because of the heat it generates. If you have a lot of blood on your hands and get some QuikClot on them, it will burn a little but nothing severe, just wash it off with water or brush the stuff off. For some reason, the heat doesn't seem to induce damage in the wounds, and people who have been treated with QuikClot generally say it creates a soothing, comforting warmth rather than pain. Anaphylaxis is not a risk for the reasons described by TacRescue (inert mineral substance, not animal-derived). If you don't follow the above steps (most importantly, stopping the bleed, scooping out blood, and creating a wound bowl) QuikClot won't work. Basically it won't get down into the wound and will uselessly pile up on top of it without forming a clot, so the guy is still bleeding out underneath it and the granules will eventually get pushed out. We give QuikClot packets to all our marines for their individual first aid kits. To be honest though I don't think anyone has used it yet, just because of the types of wounds we've had, but it is certainly good stuff to have around. After using it on the pig I am entirely confident it will work in the real world given proper usage and the right type of wound (deep arterial and venous lacs are ideal). In the OEMS course we tried several other of the hemostatic products on the market and QuikClot was, in my opinion and most others', the best. Hope this helps. Just make sure everyone also knows how to use a tourniquet and make a good pressure dressing. These are still our first lines of defense for treatment of bleeding. BTW bungee cords make effective tourniquets (loop it around so you snag the cord in the hook, then back-loop it the other way around the limb). Not the best tourniquet but easy to get so you have a lot lying around when people start getting all their limbs blown off and you run out of CATs. ______________________________________ Well, that's sobering. God Bless you boys in the bad places. Come home safely. BTW, here's the Quick Clot purchasing location: Shomer-Tec In the meantime, creaky old lardasses like me will borrow what you have learned the hard way to stay alive if something crazy happens to us. I've signed up for an EMT basic course at the local JC to learn a bit more basic trauma medicine. If more interesting chatter comes out from instructors I'll let you know. |
| I'm not to sure that just anyone can buy this stuff even if it has passed the test trials. That would be like buying vicoden or other pain medications over the counter without a doctors prescription. I dont think it is possible (but I can be wrong). I know that the military is also trying out a new IV fluid that has oxygen carrying capabilities to. This would be cool to have on the squad. |
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I watched the video of a live pig where they severd the femortial arteri and vein, dumped a package of quikclot in the wound applied some pressure, about 10 secs later the bleeding had stoped Video |
That's some good stuff...  |
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Quik Clot Great stuff indeed, wish it had been around during VN. |
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