Originally Posted by
Gutshot John
Total exsanguination isn't necessary to be unrecoverable. Kidney failure especially occurs very rapidly, but it doesn't always lead to immediate death. I think most medics especially forget that its the subsequent and associated organ failures that kill. Exsanguination is a fatal outcome of shock, but so is partial exsanguination with organ shutdown.
I don't think pointing to some individual cases such as pigs and get anything meaningful is possible. There are simply too many factors at play and you need a far larger sample size. I think what it does illustrate is that extreme shock manifests itself in a variety of ways, and the amount of time you have before lethality varies greatly on circumstances.
I've seen positional shock take people very quickly that were otherwise stable, sometimes you have time, sometimes you don't.
It pays to think about the situation you have in front of you.
ETA: As a contemporary of the medic in question who received much of the same training, and certainly studied the actions of medical personnel on the ground, incorporating that very scenario into PHTLS/TCCC, my understanding of the death of Cpl. Smith was that the bleeding was NOT controlled and so he was trying to go back in and clamp it. If the patient was otherwise stable, and the medic decided to to go back in...well I would question the judgment of that call, that's not to say it wasn't the right call, just that it raises eyebrows...if that is what happened.