External hemorrhaging is the leading cause of preventable death before people get to a hospital. Knowing how to apply pressure and use a tourniquet are lifesaving skills.
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The Military Learned to Stop the Bleeding
Many civilian lives could be saved by using tourniquets.
A Combat Application Tourniquet training demonstration in Long Beach, Calif., May 9, 2019. Photo: David McNew/Getty Images By Frank K. Butler and John B. Holcomb Dec. 20, 2020 4:29 pm ET
Robyn Gardner lay bleeding by a river near Sacramento, Calif., her thigh ripped open by a boat’s propeller. A former Army medic happened to be nearby. He applied a tourniquet, which immediately stopped the bleeding and stabilized Gardner. But when the ambulance arrived, the crew removed the tourniquet, because tourniquets weren’t an approved trauma intervention in the jurisdiction. EMTs tried other techniques to control the bleeding, but Gardner died at 38 in 2003.