First Aid for bleeding. Part 1: new tools

[ILowe]

Anyone taking anticoagulants should know about first aid for external bleeding. Therefore this article in the daily mail caught my eye. dailymail.co.uk/health/arti...

It is based on livescience.com/56111-how-t...

The first step is to find the location of the bleeds. This means whole body skin search if need be. Therefore, I have bought some ‘trauma sheers’. Cheap, lightweight, I keep a pair at home and in the car.

The second step is usually pressure, using elbow force if need be. The first layer should be sterile. Insides of a new newspaper, or a new packet of tissues are a good place to start.

A tourniquet is back in fashion. And you do NOT loosen it every 10 minutes as I was taught 30 years ago. An emergency professional told me that to work, a tourniquet will be at the limits of human pain!

There are new style bandages which can double as a tourniquet using a built in clip. amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00...

A friend advised me to get a few resqme Car Escape tools. amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00... . Note, the imitations do not work.

This is a keyring device. It can be used to break glass to get someone out of a car. It has an ingenious cutter which is safe enough keep in your pocket, and sharp enough to cut through seatbelts – a good source of straps for a tourniquet, or for immobilising the head. You can also use it to cut clothes to get to the source of the bleeding.

Question. Has anyone here on this forum any experience of using these products, or similar?

[Hidden]

I'm worrying now, because I take absolutely no precautions against bleeding and (for example) happily go out and tackle rose bushes in the garden with nothing more than gloves... I haven't found minor bleeding takes that long to stop and I suspect if I have major bleeding I'll have lots of problems anyway! But the gauzes sound very interesting... I will invest in some of those for sure. Thank you for the link

[ILowe in reply to Hidden]

I too have not had problems with minor bleeds. Normal treatment works: clean it with water, and then apply pressure. Funnily enough it is the small stuff that sometimes takes the longest to stop. I do lots of DIY. Yes, I miss with the hammer sometimes and give myself some nasty bruises. But, until I talked to a friend this summer who taught First Aid, I had not realised that times had changed. There are better methods and products. I also think those of us who, if bleeding starts, are more likely to have problems, should become community experts.

[Hidden in reply to ILowe]

I bruise like mad - I think the dog kicks me in the night! Either that or it's my hubby I did a St John's first aid course many years ago and I remember about applying pressure to a bleed, but I am sure that advice has changed considerably since then. It would be good to know more...

[ILowe]

Bruises are another thing. Perhaps someone else has advice. For cuts, pressure is the main method + sometimes holding the wound together. For deep wounds the method is to stuff gauze on top of gauze then apply pressure, perhaps with a tight bandage. Pressure might need to be strong sustainable eg elbow/knee.