CAT Tourniquet pointers

Adding this tourniquet to my OTW kit. Its open water swim season n i have a couple swims outta monterey and carmel at end of month.

Anyone ever used one before?  Im assuming its plastic wrapped for transit but shd be unwrapped, stowed and ready to deploy immediately OTW?

 

Thx for any pointers!

Take it out of the plastic and “stage” it so it is ready for 1 hand deployment.

Keep it where you can get it easily with only 1 hand.

BuY a second 1. Or 2.  The first may not be enough (seriously). And if one thing is bleeding it’s very likely that something else will be bleeding too.

Practice with it over and over so you are comfortable with it. If you need to use it you will be operating in lizard brain mode most likely.

Practice practice practice.

To get it to work right it has to go tighter than you would think. They hurt badly when applied properly. If you use it and think it’s tight enough have the next guy go like 2 extra turns. Also have them take away any weapon you have because you will probably want to use it on them 

Practice with it over and over so you are comfortable with it. If you need to use it you will be operating in lizard brain mode most likely.

Practice practice practice.

Thanks for the reminder, gonna bust out the bleed kit and reacquaint myself with it; it's been a while.

I bot 2 of em. Thx for the confirmation about staging and I'll practice like Iverson!

To get it to work right it has to go tighter than you would think. They hurt badly when applied properly. If you use it and think it’s tight enough have the next guy go like 2 extra turns. Also have them take away any weapon you have because you will probably want to use it on them

^^^^ This, and one other point that is worth mentioning. Go higher up the extremity than you think you need to. This is fairly easy to do when the injury is way down the extremity, but gets very difficult on injuries to the upper thighs especially, which are common and more serious due to the femoral artery. You have to get the tourniquet waaaay up in the groin to be effective.

Always think, "high and tight".

Just my 2¢ as I peruse unread posts that aren't super old.

Thx for the pointers. Still timely considering im about to swim in bay lol.

I practiced, and it pinches the isht outta yo skin. If your deploying it for real prolly have bigger pains than a pinch tho

I practiced, and it pinches the isht outta yo skin. If your deploying it for real prolly have bigger pains than a pinch tho

Lol, pretty sure you'll have bigger concerns.

I got one on my weight belt, and another in dry bag in kayak, and another on dive board, and another in the truck....

Hope i never have to use it, but figure better to have it just in case...

I’ve practiced a bunch with them and feel pretty comfy with getting it on quick...

Hope you are doing well buddy!!

 

Sincerely,

Jim

OK, nice.  so they hold up pretty good to full immersion, corrosion!  Thx Jim

So we used these a lot in the Army and yeah staging is important. A properly staged one is much longer than when it arrives in storage (hence the new Army CAT holder is really long).

They stand up really good to abuse and yeah if you're doing it right its going to hurt like hell. Long story short you should be able to form a loop by holding it in one hand and biting it, since while morbid you never know if you're not going to have the second hand to use. I think the newer version fixed the doesn't hold on single pass through problem but I'm old school like this guy

In reality keep turning till it stops bleeding / pulse stops.

I'm sure you already found this but: but here's the NAC training video regarding joint and placement away from wound. The pictures and instructions are cute but yeah leave something to be desired.