Well, it depends on where they are hit.
1.) Shock - so you need to brush up on how to treat shock
2.) Pain
3.) Blood loss
4.) Infection
Infection can be mitigated, but without antibiotics could be a problem. But prompt treatment with an antiseptic will be a start. Salt water / Soda Water and blankets for the shock (elevation). For the blood loss, you will need Celox and direct pressure. If no doctor is around you need to know how to tie off an artery, which is frankly beyond me.
If my buddy gets shot, I don't care about pain (the real docs with real drugs are paid to manage that). If I'm treating him for bleeding or breathing, I don't care about infection, as this place is full of burn pits, open toilets, and moon dust. I care about keeping his blood in his body and his air in his lungs so he survives.
I'm not saying that you should tourniquet everything that bleeds by any stretch of the imagination, just pointing out that they are not as bad as it was once thought they were when applied properly.
Bingo. Latest wisdom with the tourniquets issued to soldiers is that there's a good chance they'll keep the limb if it's removed in a med shed in the first 4 hours.
I say some only because I am not aware of the distribution [of tourniquets] service wide.
Everyone in theater has at least one on their battle rattle. Every one of my guys has at least one on their battle rattle, one in their pocket, and 3-5 in the CLS bag in their vehicle.
What do some of you think about the Cav Arms clot packs sold in the Blue Press?
If it's Quickclot powder, I recommend against. I'm not a medic, but I've had more than one tell me that clumps of the cohesed material can break off and block veins, or worse reach the heart. The Army is issuing Quickclot gauze to each troop now. All the advantages of quickclot without the danger of breakage, since the powder is contained in the gauze. There's very convincing video of it being used to stop bleeding on the femoral artery of a pig, if you can find it.
What are the current recommendations for treating sucking chest wounds? Years ago, in our combat first aid classes, they emphasized that any wounds to the chest area should be closely checked.
Per Army CLS:
1) Have the victim exhale and hold his breath.
2) Cover with something non-breathable (your hand holding or wearing a latex glove, zip loc bag, or similar is fine for this).
3)Tell the victim to breath normally.
4)Repeat if you find an exit wound.
The metallic bandage wrappers are the best [for treating a sucking chest wound].
What's best is having an Asherman chest seal on hand, and an ER a stone's throw away. An Asherman should be very easy to procure, and easy to carry with you in a vehicle or small first aid kit while hiking. Much, much quicker than having to tape down 3 sides, and will adjust to any angle - patient could be sitting up, or lying down at any angle.
This is all moot point for the OP though, as needle decompression is well past the first aid/first responder level.
17 year old privates are learning it in Basic Training now. Physically not that difficult, but I still wouldn't do it stateside to someone I didn't know for fear of getting sued.
One of the few benefits of this sort of war is the rapid advancement in battlefield and trauma medicine.
Amen to that. Not long ago we were using crappy cheesecloth pressure dressings to make tourniquets and splints. And they always broke, even when new in the packaging.
To answer the OP, generally speaking it's going to be APPLY DIRECT PRESSURE, ACTIVATE EMS.
804)448-8250
