Originally Posted by
citizensoldier16
What about whole blood? Critical care ambulances (both air and ground) have the ability to infuse whole blood and other blood products enroute. I know for a fact that the local CC trucks, UNC and Duke, will treat blood loss that affects the transport of oxygen with more blood, rather than a tournaquet.
Having the ability is one thing, having the appropriate blood is something else. I'd be curious about seeing UNC/Duke's protocols on the issue.
TacMedic4450, I have to disagree with you on the premise of such availability of whole blood products in the critical care setting. Rather than tournaquets coming back, I think that whole blood infusions will eventually trickle down to the ALS level and offer a more medically effective treatment. Whole blood replacement combined with direct pressure would yield, in my opinion, a more positive outcome for the patient and reduce the possibility of loosing a limb due to a tournaquet.
It's been pretty definitively shown that the risk of loosing a limb to tourniquet is fairly overstated. In fact it's become standard procedure in the military to apply a tourniquet first and ask questions later. A corpsman buddy of mine who is now a PA with the 82nd ABN, said quite plainly that the available studies indicate no loss of extremity even after multiple hours (though the guy would have been in complete agony).
I'm skeptical of whole blood being broadly used outside of a specialized medical unit without more information as to the basis of your opinion.
It is bad policy to fear the resentment of an enemy. -Ethan Allen
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