If you’re bleeding to death you have mere minutes to figure out what to do before you lose consciousness and die.

Often the sight of a lot of blood induces panic. That makes your heart pump faster and clouds your thinking. When seconds count, you don’t have time to panic. The way to avoid this.. preparation.

According to the Mayo Clinic, the most common injuries involving blood loss are “home misadventures” and vehicle accidents. At particular risk are large arteries in the arms and legs.

Kitchen knives, plate glass windows, and power tools all present extra risks to the limbs.

I’m not a doctor but some good ones wrote a guide here. The best thing to do is to get some in person training in a first aid class. You can get free online and in person training through stopthebleed.org. This information is especially important to people who use kitchens, ride in cars, use power tools, have children, elderly people or loved ones in their lives, travel to distant or foreign places, or where first responders can take more than 3 minutes to arrive. This is essential knowledge every single person should know.

Statistics

Every year 60,000 Americans die from hemorrhaging. A tourniquet would not save 100% of these people but it can increase the time they have to get to a surgeon where their life may be saved.

A person can bleed to death in 5 minutes or less depending on the severity of the injury

Tourniquets cannot be used on necks, joints, or the torso. They are for limbs. Other bleeding injuries may require gauze, chest seals, or pressure.

Read more about blood loss here.

Where to Stage A Tourniquet:

• Kitchen drawer
• Glove box of every vehicle
• First aid kits
• Go Bags, IFAKs (individual first aid kits) or EDC bags
• Garage, toolbox, or toolshed.
• With tools or equipment that increase the risk of massive blood loss like saws, dirt bikes, atvs, rifles and other hunting equipment.

You should have a tourniquet that can be accessed quickly no matter where you are. If you are bleeding out, walking around, panicking and searching around for where you left your first aid kit, while your heart rate goes to 145 bpm is probably a bad deal. Just keep it in the toolbox.

If you carry a firearm, you should carry a tourniquet with your firearm.

Just Carry an IFAK:

An IFAK is an individual first aid kit. You should build one, and if you have a family, a larger and more robust version should also be built.

The IFAK is what you take when you go out by yourself. It can fit in a belt or ankle bag. Personally I carry mine in a small cross body bag. The IFAK has the bare essentials. 2 cheat seals, shears, sharpie, flashlight, gauze, latex free gloves, space blanket, tourniquet, antiseptic wipes, a few bandaids.

The family sized IFAK has more stuff to treat multiple injuries and less critical injuries, such as a CPR mask, nasopharyngeal airway and lube, Israeli bandage, burn gel, gauze pads large bandages, small assorted bandages, medical tape etc.

Buying a Tourniquet

• Buy a Committee on Tactical Combat Casualty Care (CoTCCC) approved tourniquet. I use a C-A-T. See this list.
• Unless you’re going tactical, get a brightly colored model you can identify quickly in your bag. For virtually every civilian scenario we will not need to worry about visibility. The only time I can think of in which I might want a black tq is in the event of a active shooter. If you want to be ultra prepared for anything and go to tons of conventions, concerts, festivals, fairs, etc, then having a tactical medical kit might be something you invest your time in doing. I don’t worry about specific scenarios. I just have what I need in general, but if I ever needed to hide the high-vis tourniquet, I’d probably just cut a long strip from a T-shirt and wrap around it.
• Don’t cheap out on non-certified tourniquets. The primary problem with these cheaper tqs is that the windlass breaks. If that happens you are hosed.
• Don’t buy from Amazon unless you are positive the supplier is legitimate. There are counterfeits. I order through NAR or Medical Gear Outfitters.
• Whichever type or style you opt for make sure you know how to use it before you need to. Theory is great for some stuff but make sure you get practical hands on training as soon as you can.

If you remain unconvinced of the usefulness of a tq, go to amazon.com and read reviews on some of the models sold there. You will find numerous instances of people using them to save the life of their loved ones or even themselves. If you’re the type of person to put on a seat belt, lock your doors at night, or to have a fire extinguisher you will understand the benefit of having a few tqs.