Tourniquets

That is the whole indication. Not a deep cut, not a graze, not a nosebleed. It is for the situation where someone is losing blood faster than you can hold it, which in practice means machinery, chainsaws, augers, a serious vehicle or motorcycle crash, or a crush injury.

Direct pressure first, always. The tourniquet is what you reach for when pressure is not working or you cannot maintain it.

YOU HAVE TO BE TRAINED

This is the part that gets skipped and it matters more here than anywhere else in a KIT.

A tourniquet applied too loosely can make bleeding worse. Applied correctly it hurts, considerably, and people hesitate because of that. Both problems are solved by having practised on a training day rather than working it out for the first time on a real casualty.

SURVIVAL strongly recommends proper first aid training alongside any tourniquet.

WINDLASS OR RATCHET

Two designs, and the difference is how you generate and hold the pressure.

The SOF Tactical Tourniquet uses a windlass, the design most widely used by military and emergency services. It is proven, it is what most training courses teach on, and it is the standard most people will recognise.

The RapidStop Tourniquet is designed for speed and simplicity, which matters if the person applying it is a bystander rather than a trained responder, or if they are applying it to themselves one-handed.

ONE-HANDED APPLICATION IS THE REAL TEST

If you work alone, the tourniquet you need is the one you can apply to your own arm with your other hand out of action.

That is not a hypothetical for a sole trader, a farmer or anyone working in a remote location. Practise it, one-handed, before you need it.

WHERE TO KEEP IT

On the vehicle or the person, not in the shed. A tourniquet fifty metres away is a tourniquet you do not have.

The SURVIVAL Trauma First Aid KIT packages the tourniquet with the dressings and the rest of what a major bleed needs, which is the more practical unit to carry.

Also see High Risk Workplace, Tradie and Rural.