For any injury that results in bleeding you might find having Quickclot on hand would be a life-saver. Marines in Iraq have had good and bad luck in using it. From what I understand it is a powder that you would put on any arterial wound or any other injury that has uncontrolled bleeding. This is the site where I read about it.
http://tinyurl.com/ye54sc
I hope the tiny url works as I’ve never used one before.
Boy, they sure poo-paa-ed the product in that article….it is usually available on eBay for a discounted price from what you find it on retail sites. I’ve thought about giving it a try…wonder if any military guys here have ever had first hand experience with the product?
You can also find it in animal supply catalogs. It’s probably cheaper that way, also. I had an unfortunate run-in with muggers many years ago; cuts on face, etc. and used the Quik Stop they have ; with excellant results…NO stitches needed after that. I still have a bottle and it’s in with my preps.
Make sure you get the NEWER formulation, not the old stuff.
There was an exothermic reaction problem with the old formulation.
Along that line, I regularly use a product called “Nu-Skin”, its reminiscent of airplane glue, you paint it on, it dries watertight. I work around biological waste in hospitals sometimes, and I use it on any smaller cut that might be infected, and I have held together the edges of larger cuts and “glued it” on the outside too. But the best thing is really “sealing” the opening or scrape in a way no bandage does if you are going to get dirty. Not practical on large wounds.
Fiddler- Like you said, Nu-skin is GREAT stuff for the little nicks and minor cuts. A couple coats and it usually lasts a couple days. Very good way to keep clean wounds clean. Good stuff.
Clot powders and cellulose type blood stopper pads/sponges (there are many on the market) work great for persistant major oozing. I can’t imagine them replacing the basic first aid maneuvers for controlling arterial bleeders in the field though. If the standard first aid maneuvers: elevation, direct pressure and pressure to the appropriate upstream pressure point and patience (10–20 minutes or even more) don’t stop the bleed, it is time to find the actual vessel, clamp and tie it off. Like the review implied, basic first aid measures work really well.
my understanding is that Quick clot is pure potatoe starch. Can anyone varify? I bought a can of potatoe starch and have lots of gause bandages (and sanitary napkins which make great, absorbant bandages…similar to abdominal (ABD) pads in hospital dressings)
Probably I won;t end up using either: as MAV in Colorado describes above…but food grade potatoe starch, not sterile but high quality and clean, was very cheap in the supermarket so no harm done.
jplanner:
About a year ago one of our regular posters was a paramedic and he said he always carried an unopened bag of instant potatoes in his kit to stop bleeding and said it works very well.
Yes, potato starch is the ingredient. You can buy a 2–3 lb sack of it at your grocery store for about $3. In a pinch, instant mashed potatoes will work too, just crush them up with your fingers while sprinkling them on. Works quite well. You can find many other articles on this subject by googling the words “potato starch bleeding”.
Meant to say that you can find potato starch in a grocery store where the specialty flours are.
MAV in Colorado – at 02:37 the way I understood it, Quick Clot was an Israeli army thing first and it was used by the military to put on BIG holes in people, not just deep cuts and the like. The sole purpose was to be able to get someone from a front-line injury to the MASH area where the surgeons were without them bleeding to death. Apparently it didn’t work as well as expected for some.
Coagulation enhanching materials have been used during surgery for many years for persistant diffuse oozing situations (ie hepatic/splenic lacerations/fractures) that are not controllable with suture ligation, electrocautery or other means. Most of these products include some form of thrombin, fibrin, calcium, vitamin K and/or a variety of patented mixes of various clotting factors. They work great in those situations. But these are not arterial bleeds, strictly speaking. Just persistant moderate oozing which cannot be left to go on.
A traumatic injury that produces blood loss sufficient to be life threatening needs to be controlled. With a peripheral arterial injury these products are “washed away” from the site of arterial injury by the high pressure arterial flow. Like trying to put sawdust or a sponge on a charged garden hose with a gash in it. As long as there is flow your “hosed” so to speak. Now, that said, if one were to apply basic first aid measures (proximal pressure point compression sufficient to occlude the vessel and dramatically reduce the outflow at the site of injury), one might be able to place one of these clotting materials at the precise site of injury and with some patience (time) have success. This could work unless rather than a gash you have a complete or near complete laceration of the artery in which case you need to identify, clamp and tie (or last choice torniquet).
In a central arterial (abdominal or chest) injury causing life threatening blood loss, ie “a big hole”, mearly “plugging the hole” won’t help. It may look like the bleeding has stopped on the outside but the chest and abdomen are large enough to contain a persons entire blood volume. Not a good place for it to be.
Using potatoe flakes or other non-sterile foriegn materials introduces a major source of contamination that one way or another will need to be debrided (removed) and delt with to prevent infection (IF the patient were to make it).
I think in austere conditions you need to have basic first aid knowledge. These very basic techniques will save the vast majority of salvagable cases if properly applied. And it’s easy to learn. For peripheral (arm and leg) bleeding: elevate, apply direct pressure to the injury, apply pressure to the upstream pressure point (see chart of arterial pressure points), tourniquet (last resort) etc. http://tinyurl.com/y5ghdc
I think the basic 1st aid courses through the Red Cross are about 16 hrs and used to be in the $40 range. Well worth it if you want to consider yourself “prepared”. The CERT programs offer a 1st aid section (usually 1 night of the 5 night course) that is geared for disaster situations. Significantly different from general first aid.
Don’t overlook this basic area of preparedness.
Can you sterilize the potato starch in the oven or microwave? Who would know about that?
Just wanted to let you know; I can’t think about that box of instant potatoes on the shelf as “just for dinner” anymore. Yug.
Also get some Opsite dressings.
Keeps the wounds clean after treatment,and allows them to drain if needed.
Opsite dressings…..okeydoke, I’ll add it to the ever-growing list of things I still need!