onichamaWhat is an item below 100 bucks that everyone should own?
A nice first aid kit with tourniquet. That thing saves some serious lives.
Last few times I did my first aid certificate I was taught not to use tourniquet; in fact it wasn’t taught at all. I guess in most situations it makes sense not to use it, in situations where it would make sense to use it I would not have first aid kit handy.
Most people in military combat end up dying from bleeding caused by an injury. It can happen in two minutes where they lose enough blood to die. A tourniquet will stop that bleeding as long as the injury is in an extremity and can be left on for hours without further damage, giving you enough time to get to a hospital.
Military combat is pretty different from the sort of injury you might get around the house.
oatscoopI’m a paramedic. The last time I used a tourniquet was on a teenager that put arms through a window. Their sibling locked them out of the house, so they were trying to force their way back in.
It’s uncommon, but things like that happens more often than you think. Plate glass and any sort of powered cutting tool are probably the worst offenders.