Your outdoor first aid kit doesn’t need to be fancy, but well thought out. Severe cuts by chainsaws, knives, or axes, hunting accidents, falls, and in this case, a mountain biking accident, are possible. Here, direct pressure and remaining calm saved the day, but having the materials to pack a wound, apply a tourniquet, or a pressure bandage don’t take up much room or weigh a lot.
Like a tactical environment, in the wilderness, different protocols need to be considered. Since the bleed was too high for a tourniquet, wound packing with a hemostatic gauze or any gauze would have been appropriate.
Watch the video of the mountain biker with a severed femoral artery here: http://vimeo.com/82378717 You’ll have to wait until the Fall Guy clip ends
Read about wound packing here: On page 5 http://www.nfpa.org/~/media/Files/Research/Resource%20links/First%20responders/Urban%20Fire%20Forum/UFF%20TECC.pdf
Watch a demo here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SktWh8rcqaQ
Buy hemostatic gauze or compressed gauze here:
http://www.chinookmed.com/cgi-bin/item/05214/s-hemostatics/-CELOX-Rapid-Gauze%2C-Z-Fold———————-
http://www.chinookmed.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?item=05143&source=nextopia
