Maryland Agency Tracks Tourniquet Use to Measure Success in Managing Uncontrolled Bleeding

When a man in Prince George’s County, Maryland severely injured his foot while sawing down a tree in his yard, the first on-scene Prince George’s County Police Officer accessed a Tactical Emergency Casualty Care (TECC) Kit in his vehicle, applied a tourniquet to the wound, and controlled the excessive bleeding to save the man’s life. That casualty care kit was supplied by the Prince George’s County Fire/Emergency Medical Services Department through an Urban Area Security Intelligence Program (UASI) grant to equip public safety officials with tools to prepare for and act against terrorism. Throughout 2016, the Fire/EMS agency equipped first responder vehicles with the kits to treat multiple patients, while law enforcement and fire administrator vehicles received single-patient use kits. Prince George’s County, located in the expansive National Capital Region (NCR) near Washington D.C., is a 500 square mile area with a population of just under 1 million and an annual call volume of 147,000 emergency calls in 2017. NCR is considered to be one of 10 high-threat, high-density urban areas in the United States. Originally intended to prepare first responders to control excessive bleeding as a result of mass casualty events, the agency found the kit elements – a tourniquet, Celox Rapid (a quick blood clotting agent), chest seal, needle decompression needles, “H” bandages, patient litters, and other items – were accessed regularly to address a number of civilian trau...
Source: JEMS Patient Care - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Patient Care Administration and Leadership Source Type: news