Glad I had a tourniquet

[Mlgrace]

Two weeks ago yesterday I suffered a very severe laceration of my left leg. We applied a RATS tourniquet and headed to the emergency room. It was still pumping some from the artery. The ER doc applied a CATS style and his thumb to the artery until it quit. 4 hours later we had emergency surgery and ended with over two hundred stitches. I have no feeling now from my knee to my foot on the inside and front of the calf to the foot. The moral is keep a tourniquet in your vehicle as well as in your daily hunting pack. It literally saved me.

 

[TheJason]

Holy shit! Field dressing accident or an axe?

The CAT tourniquets are the bomb. Glad you’re okay.

 

[COEngineer]

Yikes! Is there a good story behind what cut you?

 

[Mlgrace]

unfortunately it was not a great hunting accident. This is the result of a deck screw. I was replacing steps on a deck and did not use long enough deck screws from behind the deck rail into the steps. Step collapsed and I went straight down and the screw caught me. Ruined a vein, ripped an artery. Ripped the muscle. Doc said it wa in the top 5% most deadly traumas that he had to fix In surgery. Yikes. It sucked. my son came immediately and applied the RATS that he keeps in his Jeep. I hope that someone reads this and gets a tourniquet and keeps it handy. I started thinking how I am always in the middle of nowhere, alone and out of range. One will be on my day pack from now on.

 

[np307]

I had a pretty bad leg wound that thankfully didn't require a TQ that caused me to start carrying them. CATS everywhere with Israeli bandages as a secondary/backup. Glad you had one on you and hope you heal up well.

 

[TheJason]

Wow. Good reminder to everyone.

The old dogma behind tourniquets is bullshit. Applied correctly, you aren’t losing the limb or anything silly like that.

If you only carry one first aid item in your pack it should be a tourniquet. Practice getting it on with one hand as well.

 

[noharleyyet]

Good PSA, I’m still shivering.

 

[Elkmagnet]

Glad you are ok!

 

[SaskHunter]

Glad you're Ok! CATs and RATs are a must but knowing how to properly use one is even better. Practicing how to apply one on yourself and others could save a life.

Edit: Having a tourniquet/CATs available in your vehicle, at home, while hunting and at work is ideal. That applies to any profession, I live in a very rural area and encourage all my farming buddies to carry one. A tractor PTO or combine can easily take your arm, no one wants their buddy to bleed out in the middle of a field while air amb is on their way.

 

[Mlgrace]

Glad you're Ok! CATs and RATs are a must but knowing how to properly use one is even better. Practicing how to apply one on yourself and others could save a life.

Edit: Having a tourniquet/CATs available in your vehicle, at home, while hunting and at work is ideal. That applies to any profession, I live in a very rural area and encourage all my farming buddies to carry one. A tractor PTO or combine can easily take your arm, no one wants their buddy to bleed out in the middle of a field while air amb is on their way.

Absolutely. I’m an old retired soldier and then Finished up as a civilian agent with DOD. I have hasd a lot of training in this application. What was interesting was that the RATS did not fully stop the arterial bleed. It went on fast and he literally stepped on my leg to pull it tight. I think it would have been perfect if we had taken an extra wrap or two before pull8ng it tight. The doc left it on and applied a CATS right next to it.

 

[SaskHunter]

Absolutely. I’m an old retired soldier and then Finished up as a civilian agent with DOD. I have hasd a lot of training in this application. What was interesting was that the RATS did not fully stop the arterial bleed. It went on fast and he literally stepped on my leg to pull it tight. I think it would have been perfect if we had taken an extra wrap or two before pull8ng it tight. The doc left it on and applied a CATS right next to it.

I'm pretty comfortable with both with my Army and Medical First Responder background. I carry both in my MFR bag which I leave in my truck otherwise I have at least a CAT in my hunting pack or other kits. I personally find the RATs better for cuts and lacerations where where you're not sure there's an arterial bleed. It doesn't easily cut the circulation the same way a CAT would, IMO. For any complete or partial amputation, or severe laceration with heavy arterial bleed, I would definitely go to a CAT if I had the option. At the end of the day, I would still use either if that's all I had. Beats the alternative of watching someone pass out from blood loss and start doing CPR on someone to pump the rest of that blood out of them...

 

[D4570]

WOW!!!


I was going over an old barbed wire fence.
The wire snapped Like a rubber band, I was straddling over the wire when it went. A BARB CUT THROUGH MY WOOL COVERALLS, MY DENIM PANTS, MY WOOL LONG UNDERWEAR. It scratched the skin over my femoral artery.
I would have been dead before I got back to my truck.
I now carry a packet of fast clout sheets in my pack on an outside pocket.
It may not have saved my leg but maybe my life.
I don't know how I would have used a tourniquet with a cut like that.

 

[rjthehunter]

Just ordered one. Glad you're okay!!! That's some scary shit.

 

[Mlgrace]

Just ordered one. Glad you're okay!!! That's some scary shit.

That’s why I posted this. Thanks. Yes it scared the blood right out of me. Looked like a murder scene.

 

[44hunter45]

I'm not squeamish, but my gonads are somewhere around my armpits right now.

Those pics make your point like words never would.

I have one in my kit. Now I'm gonna get another just to practice.

 

[Jorgy]

holy crap, glad you are ok

 

[MTLabrador]

That’s a good reminder of why I carry a CAT hunting as well as at work. Glad you’re okay…

 

[Sytes]

Work = thin belt style IFAK

Hunt pack, first aid kit is a mole modified IFAK w/ various other usual hunt related items (Iodine, etc).

Tourniquet's can easily be the difference between life and death.

Great PSA! Glad you packed one and glad you're here!

 

[Birdbander]

Would one of you that have a CAT post a link to purchase for the rest of us? Greatly appreciated.

Glad you're ok and have taken the time to advise others.

 

[TheJason]

Combat Application Tourniquet (C-A-T)

The CAT uses a windlass system with free-moving internal band to provide true circumferential pressure in the event of a traumatic wound with significant hemorrhage.

www.narescue.com