Tourniquets ,,, ARE YOU SURE YOU'RE QUALIFIED?

Nice article about saving a life by applying a tourniquet.

Amid Chicago gun violence, public campaign aims to help keep victims from bleeding to death - Chicago Tribune:

 Doctors said that if Watson and his partner, Paul Moreno, hadn’t taken those steps after the October 2016 shooting, the teen probably would not have survived. Medical experts say anyone can employ a few basic techniques to achieve the same results when confronted with a life-and-death scenario. And a public service campaign called “Stop the Bleed” aims to do just that: teach bystanders to save someone’s life by learning basic blood-stemming techniques. Stop the Bleed is a national effort established by the White House in 2015 as one response to the Sandy Hook mass school shooting three years before. It aims to arm civilians with skills and bleeding control kits to provide crucial aid in an emergency until medical professionals can take over.

(EMPHASIS ADDED!)
I'm not sure I would have done that.

Not that I'm not a compassionate and caring person, but there are a couple of cautionary notes that YOU should be aware of before YOU apply a tourniquet to an injured and bleeding limb.

1. If you shut of the blood supply to a limb, the tissues in that limb will begin to die immediately because it isn't getting the blood it needs.  If you shut off the blood supply long enough (say, for the sake of discussion, 15 minutes) the limb may begin to atrophy. Read: "ROT".
2. If you save someone from bleeding to death, but in the process that person loses a limb due the drastic life-saving measures you undertook with the most humanitarian motives, you may be subject to a civil suit.  Unless you are a trained medical professional, you may lose the suit, should you choose to fight it.  It's like saving someone by kneeling on their chest so they can't breath ... you have possibly exacerbated the situation.  (Okay, that wasn't the best example, except that it was an 'emergency procedure' which you thought was appropriate ... except in that specific instance it wasn't.)
3. If/when you go to court, you might be congratulated for attempting to save live and/or limb, but that's in the first hour of testimony.   After a certain point, your attorney might suggest that you agree to a 'lesser' civil penalty (eg: agree to a $100,000 payment instead of contesting a $1,000,000 payment) because .. well, you DID apply a tourniquet to the young girl's arm, and she DID have her arm amputated because the flesh was necrotic.  If you had delayed in applying such an "extreme" measure, she may NOT have died from blood loss but she certainly would NOT have had her arm amputated in the next week.
4. ...

I'm not sure there is a "Point 4" here.  There are too many cautionary tales in the first three points, and I strongly suggest that you refer to other sources because I am neither a medical nor a legal professional; this is information which I received during "First aid/Traumatic Care" training in Basic, and again in NCOC training in the army.  (They weren't worried about civil penalties, they were worried about the best care for a wounded comrade. The training cadre envisioned much more frequent injuries, much more dramatic causes ... AK47 rounds or booby traps as the cause, which  cause injuries which are much more traumatic than, for example, a simple compound fracture.)  

[You should hear what they had to say about treating a wounded comrade who has had his jaw shot off!  STEP ONE: PULL HIS TONGUE OUT OF HIS THROAT AND TURN HIS HEAD TO THE SIDE, SO HE DOESN"T ASPHYXIATE HIMSELF OR DROWN IN HIS OWN BLOOD!]

Once again ... if you are concerned that someone may need your immediate care to keep from bleeding to death from some sort of lacerating injury ... go get professional training and earn some kind of certificate which documents that you HAVE been trained in this kind of emergency and you ARE qualified to make this kind of dramatic remedial care  (using a tourniquet on an injured limb).

If you don't do that, and you are faced with the situation and you do NOT apply a tourniquet ... and the patient suffers from your lack of care?  Guess what?  You're possibly still vulnerable from a lawsuit because of your refusal to apply whatever immediate care steps you might have been (sort of) trained in.

Scary Gun Nut? Or What?

Property Owner, Campground in Dispute over Handgun - KPVI News 6 - Pocatello, ID:
(August 01, 2014)

William Baker was walking his dogs on Friday night on his property in Arco, when the owner of the KOA Campground approached him about having his gun in full sight, holstered on his hip. "I told him I was absolutely legal in doing so and to be honest I was a little bit dumb founded and that was about all I could get out,” says William Baker, gun owner. Someone had gone to the campground's owner and complained about Baker walking with his pistol on his side. Baker says he wasn't a threat and he wasn't doing anything illegal.

(The Baker property and the KOA campground apparently share a common fence line.)

The local sheriff confirmed that Baker was on his own property and was not breaking any laws.
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The Comments  to the article include one (seemingly quoting the KOA franchise owner) which suggests that Baker is a scary, misanthropic wing-nut.

So is this a situation blown all out of proportion, or one which revealed a man who frightens his neighbors by his life style rather than because he exercises his 2nd Amendment right?

It's impossible to tell at this time ... see the comment from RogueRequest @ 7:46pm

One thing is clear:  The local television station seemed comfortable with merely reporting the surface story.     Their viewers would have been better served if they had the WHOLE story.

And maybe this is symptomatic of the whole "Gun Rights/Gun Control" contretemps.   When the media gets involved, they're not looking for The Truth.

They're just looking for The Lead Story.

x

Shooting Wire ... [blink] ... Just Another Pop-up Ad?

Shooting Wire:
(May 28, 2014)

(MANSFIELD, TEXAS) - Firefield Quad Rails have been known not only for their incredible affordability and solid, sturdy construction, but also their matte black finish for a seamless, streamlined look. Shooters now have the ability to customize their AR-15 with two new colors available in the Firefield Quad Rail line: Dark Earth and Olive Drab. These military-inspired shades offer more than just customization; they are also a strong proponent of concealment. With either the Dark Earth or Olive Drab color, shooters can hone in on their targets with the confidence they'll remain hidden.

Was it only a year or two back, when The Shooting Wire was a valuable reference for information of The Shooting Sports?

Now I no longer bother to read all the details, and often don't even read the Feature at the end of the daily blog.

Frankly, I don't care which firearms-related company is looking for another marketing manager, or (later) who has been hired.

I'm rarely interested in the whiz-bang gizmos that shooting-related dot com is promoting.

The sorry fact is, the email-based website has degenerated from a source of useful (or merely interesting) information to a shill for their advertisers.

Don't get me wrong:  I like it that they continue promoting Juniors and Ladies who have joined the 'shooting community".   Even though I'm not always in the things that their FEATURES section has to say about ... oh, tactical issues, for example ... I understand that there are other readers who consider this a valuable asset.  I GET that my narrow range of interest can't always be the sole content of a website which seeks to provide information to a much wider audience.

And yes, they do need to advertise; it costs them money to present this forum (although viewer participation is not their primary concern), and I don't begrudge them their efforts to expand their readership, and provide articles of interest to a wide range of readers.

I also recognize that by publishing articles about the tasking and hiring of personell, they are providing a valuable service to the folks in the Industry who are supporting the website.

It's just that ... I don't care.  Most of it bores me.  I still maintain my (FREE!) subscription, and will probably will continue for as long as it is available.

Every week, there is less 'interesting' content.

In a dead-tree gun magazine, there is enough variety that if I flip over a few pages, it doesn't take away from the general interest.  My vague discontent is based on the fact that I find myself flipping over 90% of the content, and often I file the issues entirely unread.

This is not the sign of a contented readership.

I accept that your website gets a helluva lot more readership than my poor attempts at blogging.  On the other hand, I'm not getting payed for the quality of my content.  I have no advertisers, and I'm not a professional writer.   So ... should my opinion count for anything?

Well, I am a subscriber.  So far. You tell me whether my opinion matters.

Sorry, Shooting Wire;  I admit to being fickle and bored.

Is that my problem?

And then, you go and post Feature articles like this.  Okay, I'll be hanging around for a while yet.

(click here to subscribe to The Shooting Wire)