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I have a CAT tourniquet as i'm sure most preppers do. I have seen recent videos of people wrongfully applying them during these riots going on in America and causing more harm than good. I have seen completely conflicting information from people, even within the medical field, about when and if you should use a tourniquet. I've heard medical professionals say you should never use a tourniquet, others say only when basically a limb has been severed. I cant even get a clear answer from googling it. When is it appropriate/necessary to apply a tourniquet and what should i do if there is a total SHTF situation where there is no medical treatment i can take them to.

When you can't control extremity bleeding by any other means....

https://www.qualsafe.com/pages/Resuscit ... dance.html



Haemostatic dressings and tourniquets are to be used when direct pressure cannot control severe bleeding.


Following extensive use and research in combat, there is a wealth of evidence that tourniquets are effective, save lives and have a relatively low rate of complications following application. Similarly, haemostatic dressings have also undergone significant improvements in recent years, have low complication rates and have saved many lives.


The balance of complications versus possible outcomes if not used have led to both tourniquets and haemostatic dressings being introduced into main-stream first aid. Of course, a small office workplace is unlikely to find that catastrophic bleeding is a significant risk to their employees, so they wouldn’t necessarily have to rush out and buy this new equipment. A waste recycling plant or tree surgeon on the other hand may wish to consider having these available.


The good news is that the guidelines are very clear that “training is required to ensure application is safe and effective”. Trainers and IQAs who do not have a cost effective, simple way to gain the necessary skills to teach these subjects can take our Management of Catastrophic Bleeding E-learning Course, which provides you with everything you need to know in less than 3 hours. Simply click here to see what’s included.
Extracts from:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/First-Aid-Made ... ade&sr=8-1

I went on one of those 3 day first aid courses and took from it that you only use a tourniquet when:

- they are bleeding so profusely that they will be dead within minutes and you applying pressure wont stop it. (basically what yorkshireandy said)

As soon as a tourniquet is applied it cannot be taken off or loosened by anyone other than a trauma team in a operating theatre. To do so will definitely kill the person not to mention...you put it on to stop the fatal bleeding but it causes a build up of toxins that the theatre team will have something to give to prevent it from killing them.

Also as soon as the tourniquet is applied to a limb...the rest of the limb is un-savable and will have to be removed. So bare this in mind a tourniquet is absolutely a last case option.

At least this was what I was taught and my course I took in December 2019!

It is a very valid question and the answer is currently quite controversial. The BRC for example won’t train their volunteers how to use them?!? Which kinda shocked me because they have weekly training meetings and thus I find their first aid skills are usually quite practiced. Which I thought would have been essential for applying a tourniquet.

When applied correctly and in the correct situations they most definitely save lives. You have to make the call at the time.

But being trained is essential. I learnt a ton of stuff on that 3 day course that would have really helped me a few years back. It was the best £250 I spent that year! Not much when you consider the good you can do with the training!

I hope this helps

I did my workplace training at the beginning of 2019. I was told that when I renewed my training, tourniquet training would be included. I would not use one without training.

What Raven said about the value of that training, I totally agree with. It’s worth it’s weight , and more, in gold.

Get trained, that vital. Fact is there are few times that correctly applied direct pressure won't work, less so on a battlefield when your being shot at but in more normal times direct pressure works. Far too many preppers who think they know what they are doing when in fact its a case of 'All the gear and no idea'.