Just another beautiful BVI day. The forecast was for 87 degrees and sunny and the weather Gods were in fine form, with a predictable breeze out of the east that made us forget the advent of hurricane season.
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A frightening story. We quickly forget that this water borne adventure we take can be/is dangerous. Although our advanced age means that our only sea time is traveling from San Diego to Avalon, Catalina, some 75 miles.
I am going to review our med kits and make sure my wife and I are ready to handle a medical emergency.
Thank You for posting.
Glad your back on your boat, good point about blood type, I have no idea what mine is. Stay well Rob!
Captain Hyson, you sir, are someone I would willingly follow into battle. Glad you’re doing well.
I just did a quick Google search and loosening the tourniquet is an outdated practice that is no longer practiced. Am I wrong?
I’m surprised PS editors let that one slip by.
I was surprised to read that as well. I will only say that whatever first aid response or medical treatment you initiate, it has to reflect your training – never go beyond it unless someone over the SAT Phone/Starlink/SSB/cellphone is directing you. My training is inline with your comment – apply the tourniquet to stop the blood flow if direct compression or stop-the-bleed kits are ineffective; or the damage is so severe that using a tourniquet has to be used immediately to give the patient the best chance to survive and – here is what you’re talking about – leave it tight, don’t mess with it. If that one is not successful, apply a second one above (proximal to) the first one that is left in place. While time is not your friend in this case, additional interventions also has to be considered; maintaining an airway after getting the bleeding under control and treating for shock. From the time of injury, you have about 2hrs to get to a medical team that can address this type of injury with a small chance of losing the extremity (of course it depends upon the extent of damage, no infection, etc….). Beyond that, no one can really say. Bear in mind if the injury was due to a shark bite or cut from using or coming into contact with machinery, the tourniquet(s) again are used to try to stabilize that person and get them to medical team in less than an hour to give them the best chance possible.