Tourniquets (was re: Ride "bring-alongs")

["Duncan Fletcher" <dfletche@gte.net>]

A further comment on this. There is a great tendency on the part of lay
people to overestimate blood loss by a rather large margin. Medical
professionals tend to discourage tourniquets because they tend to be used
far too frequently in situations where they are not warranted with serious
medical consequences. First direct pressure, then pressure points (along
with direct pressure) - do you know where they are and how to use them? Only
after those fail with continued substantial blood loss is a tourniquet
indicated. And you are running a substantial risk of sacrificing the limb in
using one. Even with a tourniquet, a sucessful (live) outcome is
problematic - particularly if one needs to be transported from remote sites.

Duncan Fletcher
dfletche@gte.net


----- Original Message -----
From: tina hicks <tina@liveonthenet.com>

> oops should have been more clear - pads for applying pressure in
> non-life threatening situations; the tourniquet is only for extreme
> situations where the other option is death.
>
> Tina
>