Emergency trauma - Arterial blood loss

Emergency trauma - Arterial blood loss
7 April 2017

Emergency trauma - Arterial blood loss

The compact and cost effective new kit that will save lives.

It's the one thing that everybody has in common, no matter who we are. And it's the one thing that keeps us alive. 'If you prick us, do we not bleed?' Yes we do, we all do! And without it, there would be no transport of oxygen through our system, metabolism or regulation of temperature. It is vital in our immune system and provides the tissues of our body with the nutrients it requires. Blood is basically the most important fluid we possess and without it, we would die.

Blood Loss - Class 1 to 4

When blood loss occurs, depending on the severity - something needs to be done. According to the American College of Surgeons' Advanced Trauma Life Support haemorrhaging can be split into four classifications of severity.

Class 1 being the least severe, is a haemorrhage of 15% or less of our body’s total blood volume. When you donate blood, they usually take around 8-10% of the body’s blood. There are generally no symptoms of blood loss from this, though you may feel slightly faint.

Class 2 haemorrhage is a loss of 15-30% of blood volume. This is where symptoms of blood loss start to become apparent. The body attempts to compensate for the loss of blood. The heartbeat will speed up, they will feel weak, appear pale, and skin will be cool.

Class 3 haemorrhage, which is a loss of 30-40% total blood volume, equating to around 3-4 pints of blood. A blood transfusion is usually necessary with a haemorrhage of this magnitude. The heart will begin to beat very fast as it strains to get enough oxygen to tissues. Blood pressure will drop and smaller blood vessels will constrict to keep the body's core circulation going.

The final classification is a Class 4, when a person loses over 40% of their blood volume. A haemorrhage this severe will require immediate and major resuscitative help. If not, the strain on the body’s circulatory system will be too great to survive. The heart cannot maintain blood pressure and circulation. Organs will begin to fail and the individual will slip into a comatose state preceding death.

There are many other factors that will affect an individual's chance of survival such as the individual's age and health, and where, how deep and how many cuts there are.

Stop the bleed, time is critical

In an emergency haemorrhage situation, obviously the first step anyone should take is to call an ambulance, but will they get to you in time? If you happen to be near to a hospital you could be lucky, but if you're in the countryside it will be much longer.

The NHS have set themselves a target that 75% of life-threatening calls are responded to within 8 minutes, which to is amazing. However, if an individual is losing blood at a high rate, they could be dead within 5.

The bleeding needs to be controlled as soon as possible, giving the ambulance time to arrive and the individual a much better chance of survival.

The New Bleed Control Kit

As experts in the emergency and first aid sectors we wanted to create a kit that would be tailored especially to emergency arterial haemorrhage, giving on site individuals the opportunity to give fast and effective treatment to critical wounds. Stopping the bleeding fast and potentially saving a life.

The new Steroplast Bleed Control Kit is a 9 piece kit which comes in a resealable laminated plastic foil pouch. This is not a standard first aid kit, this is a lifesaving bleed control kit and has everything you would need to treat severe arterial bleeding.

Bleed Control Kit

The kit includes:

  • C-A-T Tourniquet - Standard issue tourniquet for Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force and Coastguard
  • Celox Rapid Haemostatic Gauze - Fast acting haemostatic dressing, works in 60 seconds of compression
  • FoxSeal Chest Seal - Occlusive dressing for the prevention and treatment of pneumothorax
  • Nitrile Gloves - Disposable gloves to prevent transfer of infection or disease
  • Ambulance Dressing - Specifically for severe wounds where heavy blood loss occurs
  • Paramedic Shears - powerful scissors to cut through clothing in emergency
  • SWAT-T Tourniquet - Multi-use stretch, wrap and tuck tourniquet, pressure dressing and elastic bandage
  • 4" and 6" Trauma Civilian Haemorrhage Control Bandage - Haemorrhage control wound dressing

Find it quickly in an emergency

In light of recent attacks on members of the public and the rise in knife crime within inner city environments, our aim was to create a kit to simply allow people to have a solution in place should the worse happen.

This kit is suitable for any inner city business, lone worker, bar/restaurant, agricultural workers, first responder or even first aid trained civilians. In fact with the correct training this kit would be great for anyone. The kit itself can be stored neatly into a vehicle glove compartment, inside a defibrillator cabinet or next to your first aid kit. Keep it where it will be seen every day, so in an emergency situation you can find it in seconds.

If your company/establishment has a defibrillator cabinet, then it makes sense to purchase one of our single-use Bleed Control Kits, to store within your cabinet alongside your AED. You are then covered for both potential emergencies.

Should you like to speak to a member of the team regarding our new kit, whether it be a quote or a product enquiry, please call 0161 902 3030 and one of our team will help you out.