Anyone can be sued, does not mean they will win.



That would be great



As long it is within your scope of training and you can explain your use, you should be okay. The pricipal of life over limb would be your lawyer's position and your medical professional's point of view.



Possibly, if you had the training and had a duty to perform you might lose, otherwise you should be okay.



Only if you had a duty to perform.

Pete

I suspect the kind of damage that some of the people here are visualizing where they would waffle about using a tourniquet aren't really tourniquet types of damage.

A cut, even a deep one, can often/usually be controlled with pressure. However, an arm that has been ripped off by machinery, or a leg that has been mangled in a car or railroad accident are no-brainers -- a tourniquet is all you can do.

A pair of my regular RR crews ran their train past a man beside the tracks who was waving his arms at them. They stopped the train and ran back to him. He didn't even know that both his legs had been amputated by the previous train. Did they apply tourniquets? You bet your mule they did! Did they save the man's life? Yes, they did.
BNSF crew save's man's life

Something I learned since I started this job: if someone has a limb amputated by a train wheel, APPLY THE TOURNIQUET IMMEDIATELY! Train wheels are several inches wide with a narrow edge on the inside. The flat part of the wheel crushes the tissues, skin and bones, and the edge severs the limb. The crushed part is almost always on the person, and the limb can't be reconnected.


"Anyone can be sued, does not mean they will win."

They don't have to win to ruin you financially. The cost of the battle can be extensive.

Sue

There always seems to have been some disagreement as to what type of injury requires a tourniquet and what might be construed as a flesh wound or even a scratch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXY9TuuwyL8

Not sure there is much new under the sun. My PSK and BOB each include an analog, manual [non-electronic] dive compass.

[quote=paramedicpete If direct pressure, elevation and pressure points do not control bleeding very quickly, the advice is to apply a tourniquet early in the process.
[/quote]

This was what I was taught, and what I implemented, back in the mid-70s. Direct pressure always worked. This included an arm amputation at the shoulder cause by walking in to the rear rotor of a helicopter. I think we were fortunate there as there wasn't much of a site for the T.

I have always been ready to apply a T if bleeding persisted, but so far it hasn't.....

"The more things change, the more they remain the same."

I use the peanut lighters a little differently for EDC. I have two. One is an intact lighter but no fuel. The other has the lighter removed and is replaced with PJ soaked cotton ball wrapped in aluminium foil. A little tuft of cotton ball is teased through a slit making it a wick. I use the lighter case to hold the burning cotton ball like a permanent match. I do this because I can't seem to keep fuel in these things very long, even without use.

The first three are definetely possibilities.

Unless you're a medical professional, the fourth won't happen. You don't have a duty-to-act. It would be incredibly difficulty to sue someone for going about their own business. Not to mention, if you don't stop, they probably don't know who you are - which makes it kind of tough to sue you.

My whiz-bang item is a pair of folding glasses. I'm practically blind without vision correction, so having a set of spares around is pretty much required. Glasses are an awkward item to fit in a small kit, so I had my prescription installed in a set of optical-quality folding readers. The case is maybe the size of a cellphone. I always take them with me.

The frames are Myspex brand, but I've since found that there are smaller and cheaper options out there. However, my optometrist was impressed at their quality.

OD mosquito netting.... camouflage, sunshade, fish net, coarse filter media, bandage material, cut/woven for cordage

As long as I act within the scope of my training, I expect that any lawsuit would be financially survivable. I'm a lot more concerned about living with the knowledge that I didn't do everything I could do to save someone's life.