poppypiesdad wrote:How about IF YOU NEED A TOURNIQUET , YOUR STUFFED UNLESS THERE'S AN A+E VERY CLOSE BY
I tend to disagree actually, here's a couple of scenarios: (second one is pretty far fetched, admittedly)
Every-day Life Scenario
Your living in a fairly rural area, miles away from anything. While you and a friend are doing some DIY at your home using a angle grinder and a cutting disk, your friend slips and deeply cuts their leg. In this case they have sliced through the femoral artery and blood is literally squirting across the room. You grab their hand, place it over the wound and tell them to hold down really firmly whilst (because your a prepper) you grab your comprehensive FAK containing a CAT tourniquet. You slip it over their leg and tighten it above the wound restricting the blood supply - stoppling the bleeding. You call an ambulance but they say they will be 30-45 minutes because of your rural location. But in this case, that would be absolutely fine because you have controlled the bleeding to what would be otherwise a fatal wound, and contrary to most peoples beliefs, your friend won't loose their leg over this time period either.
Far Fetched Scenario
There has been a collapse in society, people are running around the streets looting homes, and committing unthinkable crimes towards others. Most of the police and medical personnel have fled to look after their own families, and what little medical aid there is left has been overwhelmed by the wounded. You have decided to bug-in, and its now too late to change your mind. One by one all of the houses up your road are being broken into by small gangs, gathering food and supplies.... and your house is next up. Smashing through the window, a guy climbs in holding a knife. You hear him coming down the hall towards where you and your family members are hiding. There's no other option now but to try and defend your family so you jump out at him. Startled he slashes with his knife slicing your arm open and cutting your brachial artery. The stunned attacker runs back out your house leaving you wounded. But your a prepper... and you have a tourniquet! You slide it up your arm and use it to stop the bleeding, but there's not going to be any medical aid, at all. Your one step ahead, you knew that in a scenario like this your going to need some more advanced tools like a sterilized scalpel, ligatures, saline solution and a sutures, on top of your other items. A bit of gruesome surgery later and you can remove the tourniquet (although in this example almost definitely loosing your limb) but your not dead
I believe there is a need for a tourniquet in a FAK (well the more comprehensive kits anyway). It could be life-saving!
