A Tucson SWAT team medic had been concerned about rising violence in the area and had taken the initiative to create a First Aid kit for all deputies to carry. It became standard-issue last June. Interesting article. These officers were Equipped to Save Lives.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/21/AR2011012105860.html?hpid=topnews

First-aid kits credited with saving lives in Tucson shooting

...cobbled together the Individual First Aid Kits out of simple items used by combat medics in Iraq and Afghanistan: an emergency bandage pioneered by the Israeli army; a strip of gauze that contains a substance which coagulates blood on contact; a tactical tourniquet; shears that are sturdy and sharp enough to slice off victims' clothing; and sealing material that works especially well on chest wounds.

The items in the kit were each inexpensive; the Israeli bandage, for example, cost only $6, but deputies reached for one "over and over at the scene," Kleinman said.


A link to the First Aid kit contents:

http://pimasheriff.org/about-us/publicat...tucson-shootin/

1 – SOF tactical tourniquet [$25]
2 – Emergency 6” military bandages [$10]
1 – Asherman chest seal [$14]
1 – Quick Clot combat gauze [$40]
1 - Pair of EMT shears [$5]

For further information on how the Pima County Sheriff’s Department implemented these life saving IFAKs, contact Sheriff’s Department Tactical Medic Tom Price at (520) 351-4865.

Looks like the kits are in a Maxpedition pouch or something similar. I researched prices on the contents and put a ballpark amount in brackets (bolded).

i;ve said this before,that bandage and the Clot are the two main items of my canoeing "major bleed" kit.despite some of the down sides that are brought up about the Clot i still think it's the best way to go.both that and the bandage were devised to be applied by the injured person without a lot of prep time.

I am a Quik-Clot skeptic, mostly because I have treated, or been around, a lot of trauma where direct pressure worked very well. These were non-battlefield situations, where obviously the character of the trauma would be different. Most of what I have seen involved falls and fractures, where a lot of splinting was involved.

Obviously, a deputy sheriff's needs are a bit different. Thanks for the post, Dagny - very interesting and informative. BTW, I served under Sheriff Dupnik as a SAR volunteer when he first came into office 1980-1985. He is the real deal - he certainly improved our operations considerably.

Thanks Dagny! I heard an update about the Congress woman yesterday in which they credited the immediate first aid by an officer with greatly aiding her survival. Made me wonder what they had on-hand. Thanks for sharing!

Giffords was really fortunate. An aide was right there and prevented her from choking on her own blood. She arrived at UMC during a shift change, so there was twice the usual staff, and the attending physician had extensive battle experience with penetrating trauma.

“The fate of the wounded rests in the hands of the one that applies the first dressing.” -- Nicholas Senn MD, 1897

The concept of a 'blow out kit' is not new, and I think is a good idea, if you have some training on applying contents. I keep an equivalent in my car, I use an old Countycomm EOD utility bag, and keep nitrile gloves, eye protection, the tourniquet and shears on the outside. I also slipped a benchmade hook into the webbing. I call it my Bloodstopper 2000, meant only to suppress major bleeding until help arrives. There are several versions of these kits, they get discussed in the First Aid forum over on zombiehunters.org - my kit was directly inspired by the contents and organization of a particularly good one discussed there. The kit is organized for at most 2 victims, and is also oriented to non-gun shot trauma and slightly smaller bleeds, that can be accomodated with 4x4s and rolls of kerlix gauze - the idea is if I approach a scene of an accident, I grab this bag and go. Similarly, if you spend alot of time at a shooting range, and something happens, it would be good to have some local kit to provide immediate first aid for gun shots etc.

God bless the folks who responded in Tuscon, and god bless the SWAT team member who looked ahead and pushed for police to be equipped and trained with these kits. You can never dream up a terrible scenario like that, but you should be able to foresee alot of other stuff, and be ready for it. Their focus is on that First Five Minutes, which is a really good focus. Strong work.

Although my experience mostly mimic's yours, I have seen a time or two where the Quick-Clot would have been VERY useful. The information I have seen recommends direct pressure first, then if that is not enough, use the Quick-Clot. That is how I would expect to use it except in the case of a major trama that I clearly cannot stop (or without help could not stop).

Respectfully,

Jerry

I put my faith in direct pressure, I have a couple problems with Quick Clot - first, I don't know how to apply it, and simply dumping QC into a wound to stop bleeding seems to me to create more issues down the line than I care to inflict. I hear stories of surgeons having to deal with Quick-Clot, and often not in a pleasant way. Second, I like the idea of HemCon bandages, a pressure or other bandage that has celox or other blood coagulation products embedded in it - just wrap on a HemCon, keep pressure, and bleeding stops. The advantage there is you remove a bandage later during treatment, you remove the Quick-Clot. The disadvantage is price, they appear to be very expensive. Plus the fact that direct pressure has always worked for me, though I have never encountered a battlefield-type wound. QC is probably a great product in the right hands. I'm betting I don't need it in my particular kit though.

My first add certifications have lapsed, a situation I need to remedy, but what do the Red Cross, etc., say about QC? Any discussions about use/missuse in the medical or emergency literature?

I would be willing to guess that QC is not a panacea or even your first strategy of choice, but that it indeed has its place.

Most of what I have dealt with is blunt force trauma, the result of stumbles and falls in the back country - only a little penetrating trauma - perhaps only two or three gunshot wounds. My experience is alos biased, most likely, because the really bad trauma cases bled out before we could reach them....