dbudz0r said:
Most cities/towns/municipalities have volunteer rescue squads that are usually desperate for people. They'll typically pay for you to get your NREMT-B, which gives you an excellent foundation putting you well ahead of the ordinary citizen in terms of first aid knowledge.
BIG +1
I am also with divemedic, how the use of tampons was brought up by everyone, the implied use was to treat sucking chest wounds. Either way, shoving things into wounds, both sucking and not, is a bad idea.
Yes, you can do it, and you will be dragged into court, and you can go all high-horse of "I did it in the interest of saving their life!" and you can be convicted of practicing medicine without a license, which is a felony in some states. Good Samaritan laws will cover you only so far.
Something to think about, before you think of popping a tampon into a GSW and trying to do needle-chest decompression from some instructions you read on the internets.
Like I said in my other post, in case of any traumatic injury, your first action should be to call 911 and activate emergency medical response. Paramedic may do anything from treat and transport to request airlift to a level 1 trauma center. Next action will be to look after the ABC's until help arrives. If they are not breathing, reposition their airway, if they are still not breathing, breath for them. If they have no pulse, do chest compressions. If they are bleeding stop the bleeding with direct pressure, elevation, pressure point, and finally tourniquet.
I know of one National Guard trauma surgeon...who recommended a CAT tourniquet as the FIRST step to control bleeding in an extremity
Which, if he is your medical control or medical director, is all good. After all, if patients start having an large number of complications associated with this approach, it is HIS license on the line, not yours.
But, direct pressure, elevation, pressure point, tourniquet is the standing NATIONAL protocol for controlling bleeding.