Life & Safety with Jimmy Rios
Welcome to Life & Safety with Jimmy Rios! Get ready to dive into a world where safety meets storytelling! Drawing from his rich background as a former firefighter, EMT and safety expert, Jimmy brings you straight into the heart of safety and emergency preparedness. Episodes feature easy-to-understand tips, real-life stories, and interviews with experts, all designed to help you protect yourself, your business, and those you care about.
Whether it's advice on navigating everyday safety challenges or insights into the latest in health and safety trends, let this podcast educate and entertain you. Join Jimmy and level-up your safety knowledge with engaging discussions that could one day save a life.
Life & Safety with Jimmy Rios
The Truth About Tourniquets: Myths, Must-Haves, and Misuses
Ever wondered if tourniquets are as simple as "just tighten it and you're good"? Think again! In this episode, we discussing the twisty the truth about these life saving tools, busting common myths, and sharing must-know tips for using them effectively. From DIY mistakes (spoiler: belts are not good substitutes) to life-or-death scenarios, we're sharing our personal experiences on what works and what doesn't when it comes to stopping serious bleeding.
We’ll break down the essentials of choosing a tourniquet that actually gets the job done, tips for proper use, and why timing is everything. Plus, we've got some wild stories for you about everyday items people have tried to use in a pinch (hint: not all of them ended well).
Whether you're a first-aid newbie or a safety pro, we've got tips, reminders, and maybe even some new knowledge for you. We hope you’ll walk away from this episode feeling inspired to take action and better prepared to handle the unexpected.
If you want more and have a few more minutes you can check out our Fake v. Real video on YouTube: Find out if your tourniquet is a fake!
Life Safety Associates specializes in emergency response training for corporate ERT Teams. We help businesses create competent and confident first responders who are ready to handle unexpected emergencies. For more information you find us @lifesafetyassoc or email@lifesafety.com.
yo, what's happening? It's your boy, jimmy, and megs with another life and safety podcast. I just noticed the flowers on your nails. Yes, holy moly they are dirty.
Megan:I got I painted the other day and the paint stained, which is why they look like this, but they're still flowers wow, that's wild.
Jimmy:Okay, I digress. Uh, welcome to life and safety's podcast. Um, today we're going to talk about tourniquets. Um, there's lots of tourniquets out there. Um, some are good, some are not as good, some are easier to use, some are not as easy to use. Um, and the reason why we're talking about this is because I get asked this question a lot in class. I know megan gets asked about it in class a lot. Um, I just got an email from a really good buddy of mine who does emergency response stuff and was like what do you think of this? And I was like concept's cool, but it's just, I don't know what is the this?
Jimmy:it was a little gimmicky. So it had a has the strap goes around the body, pull it down and then velcro it, I believe, and then instead of a windlass, the stick it had like a ratchet system and you twisted it and it looked cool. It just didn't look like super easy to use to me. It wasn't super intuitive. I don't know, it was just literal gimmicky. It wasn't super intuitive, just I don't know, it was just literal gimmicky.
Jimmy:But their website had a guy putting it on at a trade show in like five seconds, which cool. I think I could have done it in the scenario they gave it with almost any other tourniquet. Yeah, you know. So it was just kind of, you know, random.
Megan:I mean, the more often you practice with it, the faster you'll get.
Jimmy:Yeah, exactly, exactly, and I think that I could have gotten the same thing with any air quote approved tourniquet. So let's talk about approval. To be fair and honest, I don't know all of the evaluation process to get them approved in what they call TCCC. Tccc, tactical Combat Casualty Care. It's what the military uses. Their civilian is Tactical Emergency, tecc, tactical Emergency Combat Care, emergency, uh, tecc. Title Emergency Combat Care and um, it's a lot of. It is all the highest level, best trainings or best practices excuse me, not trainings of what our armed services learned and did overseas during the 20-year war. I'll say it that way. Now, every TECC tourniquet that I've ever picked up was super easy to use, super intuitive, um, completed, you know, um, the police shut off the blood supply and the return, everything it's supposed to do with a tourniquet. And again, just super easy, um.
Megan:I will say one of my big important things for a tourniquet is that it's easy to use Cause a. If you're using it on yourself, you're probably going to be pretty freaked out. If you're using it on somebody you care about, you're going to be pretty freaked out and you don't want to be going through like complicated steps trying to remember oh god, what do I do next, especially with you know timeline, like if you've severed the femoral artery, that's you know huge artery um in along your leg, um, that is gonna bleed you out redonkulously fast, and so you want to be able to do it fast and without too much effort and room for error.
Jimmy:Yeah, facts for sure. Really good stuff there makes Um. So when people ask, you know, I always tell people make sure they buy an approved air quote, approved tourniquet and go to their website. Go to North American reps, guy um. Go to the Sam medical website for the Sam splint or and the Sam tourniquet, which I really want to play with that one. I really like it a lot. I think that might be my new favorite. I'm not sure yet.
Megan:And just to clarify the North American Rescue they do the cat tourniquet.
Jimmy:They do the cat tourniquet. Yeah, good call.
Megan:Which has been your favorite up to now. So I'm intrigued to learn about the Sam tourniquet now.
Jimmy:Yeah, yeah. So I really liked the Sam because of the tension buckle on it. It's a little orange wedge. You pull it and you just pull it tight until it clicks and then, even if you don't get the Velcro all the way around the limb, you still got full circumferential pressure, yeah, and then when you twist the windlass it just obviously adds, and so that's a little bit easier to use, whereas with the cat and the soft tee you have to make sure you pull it, get it all the way around and get that sick of pressure locked in um before you twist it, you know. So that's the most common mistake with that cat and with the sam tourniquet it just it takes that out of it, takes that away from it. So it's really nice. The Sam tourniquet, though, is a little bit harder to carry because it's just the way it's the heavier duty Velcro the windlass is, you know, I believe it's aluminum and it's machined, so it has a little bit more of a rougher texture to it. Some people would argue that cat tourniquets are hard to carry because of the Velcro for the timestamp.
Jimmy:Tomato, tomato, I guess.
Megan:I mean personally speaking. I carry my cat tourniquets. I have one in my purse and one in my car, and then there's one at home.
Jimmy:Do you have them in holders or do you just have them just kind of floating around free?
Megan:That's a good question.
Jimmy:So no, they're not still in plastic, no, no.
Megan:I learned that much from you. I learned that much from you, I think the one I mean they're all in some sort of first aid kit in and of itself. So I don't think they're in a holder in the kit, but they are all prepped like you teach and like we teach in class.
Jimmy:They're out of the plastic, because the plastic can delay you and shave off critical seconds of your saving time and might result in death. Oh my god, the sarcasm and the dramatic reenactment. You all are missing, right? That was awesome, um awesome now, uh, some of the pitfalls of buying some of these things off amazon is just like with anything with Amazon you don't know what you're going to get. Definitely would not buy a tourniquet off Timu.
Megan:And I would argue that you do know what you're getting off of Amazon. You know that you're not getting the right cat tourniquet.
Jimmy:Yeah yeah. I don't think anybody from North American Rescue listens to this, but if they did that'd be rad. But I think it's something like 90% chance if you buy a cat tourniquet off of Amazon. It's fake. I believe it's something that high. We've been around that someplace. So go to NorthAmericanRescuecom, that's theirs.
Megan:Let's talk about what makes. Well, I guess we know what makes a fake, because it's not made by the company. But why is it not good to use a fake?
Jimmy:So if you buy a fake cat tourniquet, the windlass isn't as strong as the real one. There's some high-level stuff here. The buckles are not usually as strong. The inner strap that gets you this full circumferential pressure around the limb is not sewn all the way around or through the strap, so you only get like 180 degrees instead of full 360. And lots of times it's sewn in and they're not a very good strong way and you just keep turning it and turning it and turning it and turning it and turning it. Times it's sown in and they're not a very good strong way and you just keep turning it and turning it and turning it and turning it and turning it until it breaks. Um, you know. So those are some of those high level things and if you do, you know good use it, um, it doesn't necessarily always fully stop the bleed.
Megan:It might slow it down, but if it's not, you know, if it's a fake it probably won't fully stop it because of those pitfalls that you mentioned.
Jimmy:Yeah, exactly, and you know also, it could cause more capillary rebound, which you know makes your veins stick out. That's why it's easier, when they put the rubber bands around your arm, to poke, you know, poke you, you know, and that could actually cause more bleeding. So it just should be more of a thing. Um, so all that stuff you got to kind of work out for someone argue well, at least you're controlling the bleeding and it's not stopping it. At least you can control it or slow it down. True, but if that's your only device, you might've made it worse. And you know, you got to hold pressure down and you got to one pack and do all other things depending on where it's at, you know. So just, it's better to spend that couple extra shekels and use it right and get a good one, so you don't have to worry about it. And that way you also don't have to try to worry about improvising a tourniquet.
Jimmy:And that way you also don't have to try to worry about improvising a tourniquet. Yeah, so improvised tourniquets are. They were the norm. Let me start with that. They were the norm years and years ago. They were taught in every first day of class. It was taught to you know, improvise a tourniquet, use your belt, use a handkerchief, all that kind of stuff. A couple of reasons why we don't teach that here at Life Safety is one, it's really really hard to make a tourniquet under pressure to improvise one. And two, it's really hard to finish or lock it off where it doesn't loosen Right.
Jimmy:So if you took a stick and a handkerchief and you wrapped it down, wrapped it around, wrapped it around, wrapped it around, and then you know, usually you take the tails and you can wrap it around one way and opposite way and then tie it again.
Megan:It doesn't loosen, but they always loosens Um so a commercially made tourniquet is still the best way to go Um and um. I my words, I'm sorry Um. If you don't have a commercially available tourniquet, best option is to just wound pack or direct pressure.
Jimmy:Yeah, pack it If it's really big. Um, of course we want to use a quick clot or a Cheeto gauze, some kind of hemostatic dressing, to help with the clotting. But socks work really good. T-shirts work okay.
Jimmy:Socks work good because they're cotton, they absorb and usually the malleable just to push in the wounds, whereas T-shirts they're just really big and long and bulky and they're just really hard to work with. Were you working here when we tested all those? No, the wound cubes yeah, we tested it with our focus research. Wound cubes and just T-shirts and shirts in general are really hard to do. Socks work the best, just old school tube socks work the best.
Jimmy:Now a lot of people will say you know it's life or limb. You know you're going to save their life but they're going to lose the limb. That's kind of the old way of thinking. If you get a tourniquet on somebody, in most cases we can get help there within two hours. You know, get a helicopter, ambulance, whatever it is, to get that person some advanced care and that person is not going to lose their limb. Two hours is kind of that magic point. There we have the golden hour right. We want to find them and treat them within that first hour of them getting hurt. Getting a tourniquet off in the second hour is usually, you know, going to be okay for that person. It's going to save their life.
Megan:That's definitely one of like the biggest myths and one of the most common questions I get about tourniquets.
Jimmy:Like. Well, if I put the tourniquet on like aren't I?
Megan:you know, just making their life worse by putting on the tourniquet.
Jimmy:I would say I'm giving them life yeah, I would agree with that statement, you know, um, but that's definitely a an issue people have because it was taught that way. It was, you know, not quote air quote rumor, but it was what people thought you. So we have to fight that now, yes, and get more better science out there and better research out there.
Megan:Correct me if I'm wrong, but cat tourniquets combat application tourniquets. They were created for use in the military. They'd stick one at each juncture point Is that the term? But like at the shoulders and at the hips when going into battle. Then if they were wounded or whatever it might be, they could tighten off that tourniquet and then that would help. Yeah.
Jimmy:I've heard some guys overseas that work in the military things like that. They would kind of pre-stage them over their arms and their legs just in case something happened. So that helped a lot. I don't totally recommend. That, though is tight, right, you know. Yes, just saying that, yeah, yeah, but a lot of the guys did carry them, they did stage them on their limbs I've heard of that a couple times, um, but they usually keep them in their vests, you know, on their, in their pouches and stuff like that.
Megan:Yeah, nowadays, for sure for sure.
Megan:For sure. And then I feel like my understanding is that that sort of helped or the combat application tourniquets, cat tourniquets is sort of what perpetuated that myth of that tourniquets equals limb loss. And it's not so much that the tourniquet itself equals the limb loss. It was that more soldiers started coming home with a limb loss and it wasn't because of the tourniquet being applied. It was the injury that caused the tourniquet to need to be applied and it was too bad and they couldn't save the limb. But more people were coming home with a loss of limbs and that was because when that injury previously before tourniquets would have killed them. Now they're able to survive it because of the tourniquet, but people then wrongly associated that, you know, causality versus whatever, the oh words, words.
Jimmy:Again. There it is stuck, stuck, uh, no, yeah, so a lot to unpack there. So, yes, tourniquets are ultimately saving lives. Um, the limb losses, like to you said, is usually because of the injury, not necessarily because of the tourniquet. And that's not just the cat tourniquet, the soft tea tourniquet right, the special operation forces tourniquet, especially the new wide one, you know.
Megan:Sam's are new Sam's just started.
Jimmy:You know they just designed the Sam tourniquet within the last like I'll say, I'll give them 5 to 10 years. It's pretty new-ish to the market and it might even be sooner than that now, but just the use of tourniquet, it's. It's saving people's lives. Now, before that, like I said, in any old school first aid kit or class they would say here's a triangular bandage or here's a handkerchief or here's a belt. If you can't control the bleeding by putting pressure on it, you yank on this as hard as you can until you get help. Come Cool, saved lots of lives. But it's definitely a thing. I think I just kind of answered a lot of the stuff you just said. You use a lot more words than I do.
Megan:Yeah, but I feel like you're more legible and understandable.
Jimmy:That's what a good team makes More words isn't necessarily better. That's what a good team makes't necessarily better.
Megan:That's why we're a good team. And then, uh, boston marathon bombing and the use of improvised tourniquets there yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jimmy:So they did a. The way I understand it is, they did a. Um, they were told that there might be a bomb threat there. There was a bomb, potential bomb explosion. Now my words aren't even working now. Contagious. Jeez, it is contagious. There's a possible terrorist attack happening and the folks at the finish line pre-staged a lot of improvised tourniquets, the surgical tubing with forceps.
Megan:Which are like those long scissors, looking things that clamp yeah yeah, yeah.
Jimmy:And if you watch any of the medical shows on TV, they always, you know, in surgery they're always like I need a forcep and they usually shut off vessels. So they do that and they had I want to say a hundred, I don't remember the exact numbers. Um trauma. Monkeycom has a really good article on this.
Megan:Yeah, that's the one I read. Yeah, yeah.
Jimmy:Yeah, and they found that with these improvised tourniquets that they're pre-made and they're fairly easy to use they controlled the bleeding, but they didn't stop the bleeding. I mean, it saved lives, it did its job, but we're always trying to get better, right, we're always trying to improvise, we're always trying to or not improvise excuse me improve.
Jimmy:Thank you, dang now my word's up for me. All that kind of stuff's happening. So that's the lesson learned there is always improve your game and try to get better, and those commercial rules you know, commercial tourniquets is the way to go, um, so that's just a really cool case study of unprovised tourniquets. Um, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I guess the moral of the story is buy a commercial tourniquet, learn how to use it.
Jimmy:Lots of videos out there, um, that being said, don't practice with the one that you purchase, because the more they are single use for a reason, and if you're practicing it all the time, it is more likely that it'll fail or break and not be usable when you actually need it yeah, so what I started telling people fairly recently is if you to go buy a real tourniquet from you know the suppliers, and then buy an amazon one and from you know and that's, and then make sure it's clearly marked as a sir training and that's for real and you know, keep them separately and that way you can practice and drill with it.
Megan:That's a good. I like that.
Jimmy:Yeah, I mean, if you haven't noticed, in our tourniquet bag, we're starting to get a lot of fakes in it. Mm-hmm, because I, as the boss, will train people for fake ones for good ones, so to speak and it's just more cost effective for us to train with them, right? Yeah, you know, if I can buy a fake one off Amazon for $6 versus a training one for $30, it just makes more sense. Yeah, go ahead.
Megan:Ooh, story time about when we purchased a box of them and we had them sitting out and Jimmy walks by and goes those are all fake tourniquets. Why do we have a box of fake tourniquets?
Jimmy:Yes. So we ordered tourniquets from a reputable source air quote, reputable source and um, come to find out they didn't do any, uh, quality control on their end and when we received them, we just kind of took them in. And you know, not everybody is a trained responder that works here. Some of our office folks don't don't deal with tourniquets a lot, you know, and um, just kind of like what I say, or you know, we buy them and we ship them out. And they were out and uh, I walked by and I just the way the time label was set up and things, the way it was packaged, I was like that's not a real tourniquet, that's not a real cat tourniquet, and I think we had like 12 left out of like 24, so we had to chase down like the people 12 we sold because I'm just I can't let our transportation ride like that.
Jimmy:So we had to replace the tourniquets. Definitely ate some of the cost, um, and then the. That's the other reason why we have so many trainers that are fake, because the company wouldn't take them back. So now we're using them as trainers, which works. I mean, it's all good, but lesson learned. You know, that happens, that happens.
Megan:So go straight through the company Yep.
Jimmy:Go to the company, reputable supplier or distributor. Thanks for joining us today. Take it easy, be safe and we'll catch you on the next one.
