Challenge your thinking: mechanical direct pressure device

Speaking at the European Resuscitation Congress (May 2014, Bilbao, Spain) about the bombings that took place during the Boston Marathon on 15 April 2013, Richard Raymond, CEO, Armstrong Ambulance USA, and one of the key clinicians at the Boston Bombings, explained that so many of the lives saved that day were because first responders had been taught how to use arterial tourniquets and had the ability to apply the principles of haemorrhage control to the wounded. They had been trained and drilled in the principles of haemorrhage control.

They were off duty American military or police who were able to apply their knowledge of the basics of haemorrhage control, improving and using basic techniques to save lives.

Unfortunately, within the UK we often read of lives that are lost as a result of first responders who are not authorised or do not know how to save lives with basic haemorrhage control strategies or <C>ABCDE strategies.