Posted on 12/25/2007 3:16:38 PM PST by Turret Gunner A20
RICHMOND, Va. - As an Army surgeon in the Middle East, Dr. Keith Rose watched a colleague bleed to death when a truck in his convoy was hit with a rocket-propelled grenade.
Rose could not get his comrade a tourniquet, which could have helped control the bleeding on his wounded leg, and sat along the mangled wreckage and talked with him as he took his last breath.
"It really kind of frustrated me," Rose said. Once he returned to the U.S., Rose approached BlackHawk, a provider of military and law enforcement gear, with an idea to create clothes with built-in tourniquets. The system being tested for use in military uniforms, called Warrior Wear, has eight tourniquets - two in each sleeve and pant leg.
A tourniquet fashioned from straps that look like those on backpacks are sewn into the clothing, and the straps are concealed beneath a fabric fastener.
"No matter how good the tourniquet is, if you can't get it on the person at the right time, it doesn't work," said Rose, who does tactical medicine consultation and medical work overseas.
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(Excerpt) Read more at home.peoplepc.com ...
The VC were attacking the camp one night..and they all wore multiple tourniquet's on all their limbs.
They knew they were going to bleed.
If you want good Law enforcement equipment,you can’t top Blackhawk.
Probably because the injured guy was caught in the mangled vehicle, and couldn't be extracted in time to apply it.
I hope He applied for a patent
“If you want good Law enforcement equipment,you can’t top Blackhawk”
You can get as good or better from many companies and not have to buy it from Blackhawk/Vietnam. They moved their manufacturing to Vietnam. So much for equipment for Americans by Americans. Now its equipment by America’s enemies. No thanks. We didn’t fight the Communists taking over Vietnam just to aid them finanially.
I also wonder why someone didn’t use someone’s web belt as a tourniquet. I’d also guess that if the injured guy was caught in the mangled vehicle, and couldn’t be extracted in time to apply a belt, the injured guy couldn’t have tightened a tourni that was biult into his own clothes, either. I’m guessing over-simplification and dramatization from the usual clueless Associated Press reporter.
But someone else could reach in and apply it; tough to put it on with a mangled wreck in the way, in the short time you have when bleeding out.
Great idea.
"Rose could not get his comrade a tourniquet"
The story is poorly written since it leaves out the details and thus is too vague.
In a pinch the web belt around his or the patients' waist can be removed and used as a tourniquet. If he didn't have the ability to place the belt around the leg due to the mangled wreckage that's one thing. If he didn't think to use the belt that's another.
I once used my hands as a tourniquet. If he couldn’t even do that, it must have been a pretty desperate situation!
We had a great ships Doc that taught us a lot of combat aide.
I used it years later when a Porche nearly took the leg off a pedestran in Geneva. My belt and finally my fingers stopped the bleeding until the medics took over. You can’t second guess but training helps too.
I suppose there will be times when the aid man could reach in to the trapped guy and tie the built-in, but couldn’t quite reach in, wrap around, and tie a normal tourni, but...
Yeah, I have a general rule against second guessing the guy in the uniform that was actually there too.
It could be that the injured limb was completely encased in mangled metal, and they could not even get a single hand into the area. Just awful.
Because of the way the IBA vests are worn, and the way you can attach gear to the vests, the belts are not used. I didn’t use a pistol belt at all. My rig had all 4 M-16 mag pouches attached directly to my Interceptor vest, and 4 M-9 mag pouches on the front with my M9 holster. On the back I mounted my handcuff case and Camelbak.
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