Encountering a serious wound might be overwhelming for most individuals, but it’s an actual chance in conditions like a severe automotive accident. QuikClot is a well-liked product that may be utilized in eventualities like this, even by untrained individuals. Nonetheless, you need to know the professionals and cons of QuikClot earlier than assuming it’s only a matter of opening the bundle and making use of it to a wound. Right here’s what it’s worthwhile to know, however first, a little bit of historical past about this text.
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Most individuals who’ve little to no medical coaching are intrigued by QuikClot. When used appropriately, it could possibly cease a deep wound gushing with blood by merely opening a packet of QuikClot and slapping it into place. Who wouldn’t need this miraculous product of their first-aid package?
Medical Professionals Expressed Issues
In 2012, a number of medical professionals reached out to me to provide their opinions of QuikClot based mostly on private use. I researched the product and wrote the article initially titled, “The Case Towards QuikClot.”
A number of the causes given for advising warning have been from professionals like nurse, Courtney:
“I work in an emergency room, and I can let you know first hand, QuikClot is AWFUL to get out of a wound. It undoubtedly will cease you from bleeding to loss of life, however if you’re in a scenario the place hospitals are functioning, and also you aren’t susceptible to bleeding to loss of life (i.e. haven’t severed a serious artery)…I had a affected person who was out fishing, lower his thumb with a fishing hook, and utilized a fast clotting agent. He continued to fish for one more 4 hours then determined to come back to the E.R., the place I attempted my greatest to debride the wound. The QuikClot was laborious and deeply embedded into the laceration, it took me a half hour simply to scrub it out. Now, I’ll admit that it’s potential that the prolonged size of time the product remained within the wound is the perpetrator. However one factor is for positive, I wouldn’t use QuikClot except I completely needed to.”
Courtney, Nurse
Effectively, that didn’t sound too good and positively not a product I might advocate. So, I requested Dr. James Hubbard, creator of The Survival Physician’s Full Handbook, and he stated:
“My expertise has been seeing pretty minor wounds handled with QuikClot. If the affected person has used the older model of the product, I’ve to scrub and scrub, and nonetheless I’m not sure I’ve gotten all of the granules out.
When this has occurred, I can’t assist however suppose that if they’d merely utilized direct stress on the wound, I wouldn’t be pressured to traumatize the delicate tissue a lot extra. Previous to 2008, QuikClot additionally produced a variety of warmth when it reacted with blood, and this may be very painful—even burn flesh. If a granule flew into a watch, ouch!
Actually it may be a lifesaver in battles, the place the injuries are giant and potential blood loss is extreme. It stops the bleeding lengthy sufficient for these injured victims to get to surgical care.
Lay individuals have a tendency to make use of QuikClot first-line for each wound. They neglect the fundamentals, like direct stress. If anybody pulls off the QuikClot to truly deal with the wound, the clot comes with it, and also you’re again to stage one except there are granules, after which the scenario has been made worse.
The underside line is QuikClot in your bug-out-bag isn’t sufficient. You must know when and the way to use it.”
Dr. James Hubbard
And That’s The place Our Up to date QuikClot Story Begins
The fundamentals of QuikClot and comparable merchandise is that it incorporates kaolin, a mineral that prompts the physique’s pure clotting course of. It’ll speed up clotting, and in a extreme sufficient wound, it might save a life because it minimizes blood loss.
From the corporate that produces QuikClot:
“At present, QuikClot merchandise are actually of their third era and are composed of a rayon/polyester gauze impregnated with a mineral referred to as kaolin. Kaolin has been proven to speed up the physique’s pure coagulation cascade and is a naturally-occurring, inorganic mineral that doesn’t comprise any botanicals, organic materials or shellfish merchandise and doesn’t trigger any exothermic response or vascular problems.
QuikClot is intuitive, with a simple-to-use dressing format, conforms readily to the wound and won’t break down or crumble below stress. The hemostatic dressing could also be left in place for as much as 24 hours. To take away, gently take away dressing and completely irrigate wound.
Our product is credited with serving to hundreds of individuals survive traumatic blood loss yearly. It’s utilized by our navy, regulation enforcement officers, EMS departments and in hospitals all through the nation.”
3 Causes to Embrace QuikClot in Your First Assist Bag
There’s nothing worse than being utterly helpless, with out the talents, information, and provides, when confronted with a dire scenario, and in at the moment’s world of top-rate medical and first support provides and coaching, everybody ought to know the way to cease the bleed.
With QuikClot, you get a product that’s simple to make use of, even for somebody who has by no means earlier than wanted to take care of a extreme, bleeding damage. When your coronary heart is pumping, your head is spinning, and now it’s important to take care of a gushing wound, that’s precisely the time when it’s worthwhile to open a bundle of one thing you understand will likely be efficient after which, simply slap it into place.
The product is flexible and also you’ll discover variations for minor cuts and wounds to extreme arterial bleeding. This bundle of gauze is priced proper, light-weight, and with quite simple directions. It may be positioned and pressed over a wound or unwound to a two- or four-food size to be pressed and packed into a really deep wound.
The product has come a great distance from the sooner variations medical professionals complained about, and the protection points talked about by Courtney and Dr. Hubbard are not a problem. As designed now, the newer model doesn’t warmth up and the fabric is encased in gauze so any want for debridement is pointless.
I’ve QuikClot in my very own first support package.
Are There Any Disadvantages to Utilizing QuikClot?
As I’ve up to date my very own analysis, the disadvantages pale compared with the potential for bleeding to loss of life.
It’s potential somebody might need an allergic response to the product, however that is uncommon, and in some instances, it may be laborious to take away from the wound, which necessitates the reminder to get the injured individual to a hospital or different medical facility as rapidly as potential, regardless that the bleeding has stopped. There might nonetheless be extra trauma and problems to the wound, and QuikClot is designed to be a stop-gap measure to avoid wasting lives, not exchange skilled medical care.
Though QuikClot is designed to be user-friendly, I extremely advocate studying the way to use it with movies like this one AND get extra coaching via the Cease The Bleed program.
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