Quikclot for First Aid in Survival Situation

[AZwildcat]

I have a kit that I carry in my car and in my pack when I am out in bush. I keep a number of items that are important to me in the event that something catastrophic happens. A survival blanket, fire building supplies, rope, knife, water and MRE's are some of them.

One item that should be in every kit is Quikclot. It is a type of gauze pad that is impregnated with a clay-like substance that causes the blood to clot quickly. I have a heart condition that requires me to use blood thinner. If I get cut or scratched, the bleeding can be uncontrollable. The only thing I have found that can get it stopped is Quikclot. The U.S. military has used various versions of Quikclot for several years. The initial product was granular and had to be poured onto a wound. It did stop the bleeding, but there was an exothermic reaction that could cause a burning. They quit making that a couple of years ago. The new stuff is a gauze. It has no exothermic problems and works great.

I have carried it in my first aid kit for a couple of years now and have had to use it a few times. By pressing the gauze pad onto the cut and putting pressure on it for a couple of minutes, I can get the cut to stop bleeding. I now keep Quikclot in my medicine cabinet at home, in my car and in my first aid kit in my pack. Anyone who spends much time in the field is going to have occasions to get cut or deeply scratched. It is really important to have the ability to stop the bleeding and get the wound covered. One item that helps with that is Quikclot. I order mine at Quikclot.com, but it is now available at a bunch of stores and on-line merchants.

[akxj]

I have heard of problems with Quickclot...it got used on me while in Iraq and I know they tested my blood for something b/c they used quickclot on me...but I will say this, the shit did the job...

[Iraq Ninja]

akxj,

You are referring to the gen one QC in the powdered form. AZ mentioned QC gauze, which is the current generation and much safer.

[akxj]

akxj,

You are referring to the gen one QC in the powdered form. AZ mentioned QC gauze, which is the current generation and much safer.

roger that...yeah it's been about 4 years since i've been to the litterbox, so i'm sure their have been advancements since I got hit...

[cmiller683]

We had a rep from Adventure Medical Kits into work the other day. The new generation of QuikClot is supposed to be much better. The original had an exothermic reaction that reached upwards of 120 degrees, causing serious burns. It would require you to cut out the tissue embedded with quikclot when you receive treatment, at least as I understand it.

The new stuff has been toned down a little bit, reaching about 100 degrees and causing no exothermic issues, no burns. It is, like you stated, in a gauze form as opposed to a powder form. I guess the big reason they did this was for an easier application, especially if you are not laying horizontal. If injured with climbing, and stuck in your rig, pouring powder onto a wound may be pretty difficult.

This is as I understand it anyhow, and what is being used in the civilian market. I imagine it's very similar with the military, if not identical.

CMiller

[K.L. Davis]

I am using HemCon products... KytoStat and ChitoGauze, my personal experiences are with the older agents mostly, but everything that I hear about the chitosan dressings is positive - do note that there is a caution for using them on patients with shellfish allergies though.

[Iraq Ninja]

The new stuff has been toned down a little bit, reaching about 100 degrees and causing no exothermic issues, no burns. It is, like you stated, in a gauze form as opposed to a powder form. I guess the big reason they did this was for an easier application, especially if you are not laying horizontal. If injured with climbing, and stuck in your rig, pouring powder onto a wound may be pretty difficult.

This is as I understand it anyhow, and what is being used in the civilian market. I imagine it's very similar with the military, if not identical.

CMiller

.

Gauze doesn't get in your eyes when you open up the package, unlike the powdered stuff. Gauze is a good choice since it is used for wound packing. If you were using the powdered form, you often had to put gauze on top of it to stop the deep bleeders. Makes sense to combine the two.

I think the Mil version of the gauze is different only in packaging. I don't think it (mil issued version) is available on the civilian open market, other than Ebay.

[HowardCohodas]

This is where I get QuikClot® Products for my go-bag.

[MIKE G]

IN,

The mil version is packed in a vacuum sealed bag and is not in a roll but is more of a folded patterns so you can just feed it out of the package. As well it has an embedded strip that shows up very clearly on x-ray (even though the standard version should be easily seen as well). I have no idea why they refuse to sell it under the same premise as the standard QC gauze unless it hasnt met some regulatory standard or was to a contract specification that prevented open sales for a period of time. That being said, I would consider anything being sold on ebay to be stolen since I as a dealer can not even get the stuff.

[Iraq Ninja]

Thanks for the update Mike. I have yet to open one up since they are a bit difficult to come by over here.

Matter of fact, everything medical related is getting tougher to find since the majority of the stuff is going to Afghanistan.