Hello sir, I had to use my CAT TQ today and just wanted to come and thank you as you were in my head today. Thanks to your recommendation and sharing your knowledge with us through these videos you make, I was able to respond to a male with a very bad laceration to his left leg. HUGE puddle of blood under the aided and blood all of the rest of the sidewalk as far as I could see for at least 30 feet or more. Looking at his leg, I could see blood running out of his wound and down his leg steadily! I was able to make the judgement call that a TQ was necessary in this situation THANKS TO YOUR VIDEOS as you've touched on this topic in the past. I was able to apply the TQ high up on his leg and immediately notice a slow down of blood coming down his leg. This gave me an opportunity to get back to my vehicle and retrieve a quick-clot and compression bandage that I was also able to apply directly to the wound and start the coagulation process. Luckily I had these things on me, along with the knowledge / mindset to be able to effectively use them. (Yes I have also trained with these items, as per your recommendation and IT PAID OFF big time.) I had that TQ on within 15 seconds of pulling it out of the TQ holster on my belt, even remembered to write the time on the TQ. The ambulance was over 12 minutes away, and that man quite possibly may have not made it if I wasn't able to apply those life saving measures. He had already lost a large amount of blood, and with another 12 minutes of steady bleeding? I'm not sure what would have happened to him. All of this was able to happen because of your videos. Seriously, thank you.
Love the videos! I can honestly say thanks to you skinny medic, I saved someone's life a few nights ago. While on duty we were called to a man shot through the back and through the arm. He was bleeding heavily out of his arm and I put a CAT gen 7 on his arm and stopped the blood flow until he was flown to a trauma center for surgery. Keep it up!
Love your videos, skinny. I’m a firearms instructor and every doctor and paramedic I’ve talked to has told me I’m wasting my time with a tourniquet; “if you have someone that’s shot, they don’t need a tourniquet. They need a surgeon”. I get that. But I live in a rural area. Well, a couple classes ago I had a stat medevac paramedic in class. I asked his opinion. He laughed and dumped his bag out on the table. Seven tourniquets. I told him I’ve been watching your videos and wanted to get a tourniquet, chest seals, npa, space blanket, and some combat gauze. He said that’s exactly what he’d get. This is my sole income and I’m not getting rich (got hurt in a car accident in 2012 when someone rear ended my tow truck on the freeway) but I know the value of a life. Last week I got a rescue orange cat from you. Celox gauze is way out of my price range, but I have a molle 2 med pouch with the cat and 5 rolls of gauze. Hoping to add the other stuff as soon as income allows. Thank you for your videos. You don’t need to be a brain surgeon to perform life saving techniques such as applying chest seals and tourniquets. I’ve been watching a lot to better prepare myself in case of an emergency. Being in a rural area, volunteer fire has to go from wherever they are to the firehouse to get the truck, and respond from there. Plenty of time for someone to bleed to death. Again, thank you. You may have already saved someone’s life.
Yeah, some professionals think they've seen it all, and to be fair, most arterial bleeds are pretty minor and stop with pressure. They may not have had the experience of arriving on scene 7 minutes after the call to find a patient spraying blood up the walls and roof trying to make a tourniquet, having lost a litre of blood already after a circular saw accident. I've seen a near amputations that seemed to barely bleed, but once in a while you realise the patient needs to be on the operating table now, and you’re an hour on blue lights from hospital. First and only time I've spent under 5 minutes on scene, it took two tourniquets before it stopped, I genuinely thought I was going to break one of them, they're not kidding about how tight you have to wind them! I've seen blood from a botched arterial sample spray across the room, but until you've seen a proper arterial bleed you can't believe how hard and fast it is. 5 litres won't go a long way if you don't stop it, and there's only so much IV fluid you can give, water boosts blood pressure, but can’t carry oxygen. It's not a job you see often at all, and despite the initial severity, the patient was very quickly more concerned about the long term effects the injury would cause. Rarely used, often forgotten about, but if you ever happen to need a tourniquet, MAN do you NEED one! I've got one in my car and one at home, on the off chance that I or anyone I know ends up with one of those one-in-a-million injuries severe enough to kill you before you can even get to hospital, which does happen Teeshirts and belts work great in films, but they don't tighten anywhere near enough for some injuries. There's few items that are so important if you need them that it's worth having them about, I can't think of any other cheap, compact piece of medical equipment that will make the difference between life and death, especially if immediate medical care isn't possible.
Skinnymedic mentioned it in a other video but I think it's a great tip that belongs to this video. When you fold your TQ bend the red tip back to itself. So you have a flap to rip your tourniquet open. Even with cold hands
Also helps to offset the red tag to one side or the other so that it's not perfectly aligned with the rest of the tourniquet. Makes it easier to grab ahold of.
Added a couple of hairbands to my SOE EDC w/Cobra belt buckle to hold my 5.11 Tactical pant up. The hairbands hold the tourniquet to my belt... This is a must for dangerous sports and not just shooting dangerous paper targets. Now part of my up-graded EDC. Thank you for the video ! tjl
Thank you skinny I went with Recon Medical for my tourniquets super heavy-duty well-made come with their own plastic bag after you get your tourniquet staged thank you by the way for the video you explained it so is easy to understand so after you get your tourniquet staged it goes right in that plastic bag and ready to go in a holster or on your belt or on your trauma kit fantastic thank you
Just put my order in for the Gen 7 CAT. Once you think about having such items in your kit, I find it really hard to not have them, hope I never have to use it but I'll sure be glad I have it if I do. Thanks SKMD!
Great info as always!! However, you are using both hands when you put on the CAT in the beginning of the video. I would have liked to see how to apply it with one hand only - Now there's an idea for your next CAT video :-)
Dear skinny medic one day I was waiting a home got scared and graped a knife for self defense well my dog barked made me jump and drop the knife sadly it landed stabbing me in my leg near the artery I remembered your video applied my cat turnikit two inches above the injery and did all the stuff you said to do and after stopping the bleeding I drove to the hospital where I learned if I didn't did what I did the t would have died so after surgery to fix and stitch I was in the clear so think you for the knowledge ended up saving my life I couldn't think you enough
guns and knifes If the injury was severe enough to require a tourniquet, you never should have tried to drive yourself to the hospital. The moment you applied the tourniquet and controlled bleeding, you should have called EMS to transport you. You could have passed out and caused a severe car crash killing you and others.
Most of the guys I know will tell me they have one end of the tourniquet displayed outside the left or right pocket of their M.T.P's. from recent experiences in the sandpit. Seems like a good idea. Point 2 Many guys actually cut the high vis tip off ( mainly for tactical reasons in the sandpit) REMEMBER TO WRITE THE LETTER '''''T'''''' ON THE CASUALTIES FOREHEAD PRIOR TO A MEDIVAC) Bin them if & when they become soiled with the '''red'' stuff & get a new one. Point 3 Civvy first aid instructors will now strongly advise against deploying C.A.T's in a civvy situation. & will NOT train civvy first aiders/responders in there use. HOWEVER, those who have served in the green are usually very familiar with their use. Members of my family can apply one inside three seconds. Brilliant piece of kit... Just wish they had been around in the N.I. deployments ( & the Falklands)
Thanks Skinny. I need to get a CAT tourniquet. I had a close call this weekend while shooting a defensive pistol class. I will PM you later this week and give you details. I have been in xray and doctors office.
As a right handed person I'd be keen to know how you'd apply the tourniquet to your right arm - assuming it was now out of action and bleeding profusely? Could that affect how we should stage the tourniquet? And any advice on how we should then (self) apply it?
For anybody that needs a measurement tool for that 6-8 inch reference, remember what they taught us when making bunk in the Army. A dollar bill is roughly 6 inches long.
Just checked all my CATs and 2 weren't staged correctly. They were set for legs... That could have been bad. Thanks for the reminder. I'm still running some of the "old" black tipped ones. I figure an old style one is better then none.
The manufacturer's guidelines on use does not recommend putting the band inside the windlass retention clip. For ALL NA CAT applications, fasten the velocro around the limb until you reach the clip. Stop there, let the extra hang. Don't wrap over the clip or through the clip, simply stop when you get to it. I'm 99.9% sure it doesn't matter, but I trust the manufacturer's guidelines especially as they specifically mention not to do this.
Thanks, it helped a lot. Just one question. Can you reuse a cat tourniquet? I know it sounds weird but after you have used it, can you told fold it up and use it again?
hey skinny medic I know this is an old video but hopefully you can respond, say i have a CAT tourniquet on for a few hours and eventually receive proper medical care, how would you/the doctors safety remove the tourniquet after medical care
CGM hope you got your answer but if it’s on for several hours that limbs getting amputated so .. it don’t really matter. You’d just undo the windlass and remove
Shouldn´t you have your pre-gen7 CAT prepared for self aid in the same way as you mentioned for a leg injury? The teeths has their purpose so would be better to have all CATs threaded around the teeths in a buckle and out. No offence, i have this info from a combat medic that applied as much CATs in a real life than i will ever do in my training :) Sorry for my English.
The gen 6 CATs are still effective. The redesign of the friction adapter, thicker windless and better velco of the gen 7s are just improvements. If you run gen 6s, i recommend carrying 3 in medical tape to secure the TQ after application.
I used mine on a guy who was in a bad car crash. after it's put on for the most part just a doc will remove it. So yes it's a 1 time deal. Would be hard to get clean as well..
They are one time use. I recommend buying at a minimum two. One for real world and one for training. They make training CAT tqs. They are solid blue in color. If you use a regular black or orange one for training, then write training across the time flap so you don't mix them up.
Forgot to mention, you can keep reusing the training one for practice. Just don't crank it down over and over to cut off blood flow. When applying a CAT, you need to make sure you pull hard and get it as tight as you can before twisting the windless. It should take no more than three full turns of the windless to cut of the massive hemorrhage.
What just a minute........you IMMEDIATELY used your 'dead' arm to hold up the tourniquet. If you were bleeding and yelling in pain there is no way you would use that 'dead' arm. Let have a replay and show it like you say.
Hello sir, I had to use my CAT TQ today and just wanted to come and thank you as you were in my head today.
Thanks to your recommendation and sharing your knowledge with us through these videos you make, I was able to respond to a male with a very bad laceration to his left leg. HUGE puddle of blood under the aided and blood all of the rest of the sidewalk as far as I could see for at least 30 feet or more. Looking at his leg, I could see blood running out of his wound and down his leg steadily! I was able to make the judgement call that a TQ was necessary in this situation THANKS TO YOUR VIDEOS as you've touched on this topic in the past. I was able to apply the TQ high up on his leg and immediately notice a slow down of blood coming down his leg. This gave me an opportunity to get back to my vehicle and retrieve a quick-clot and compression bandage that I was also able to apply directly to the wound and start the coagulation process.
Luckily I had these things on me, along with the knowledge / mindset to be able to effectively use them. (Yes I have also trained with these items, as per your recommendation and IT PAID OFF big time.) I had that TQ on within 15 seconds of pulling it out of the TQ holster on my belt, even remembered to write the time on the TQ. The ambulance was over 12 minutes away, and that man quite possibly may have not made it if I wasn't able to apply those life saving measures. He had already lost a large amount of blood, and with another 12 minutes of steady bleeding? I'm not sure what would have happened to him.
All of this was able to happen because of your videos.
Seriously, thank you.
Thank you sir or mam for saving that man’s life. Huge respect to first responders.
Love the videos! I can honestly say thanks to you skinny medic, I saved someone's life a few nights ago. While on duty we were called to a man shot through the back and through the arm. He was bleeding heavily out of his arm and I put a CAT gen 7 on his arm and stopped the blood flow until he was flown to a trauma center for surgery. Keep it up!
Awesome! This why I post videos! I am glad you were able to help.
What are you Civvy paramedic or armed forces?
police officer
To think ... You '''''almost had my respect'''''
@@lastpostbugler nobody cares or needs your respect.
Love your videos, skinny. I’m a firearms instructor and every doctor and paramedic I’ve talked to has told me I’m wasting my time with a tourniquet; “if you have someone that’s shot, they don’t need a tourniquet. They need a surgeon”. I get that. But I live in a rural area. Well, a couple classes ago I had a stat medevac paramedic in class. I asked his opinion. He laughed and dumped his bag out on the table. Seven tourniquets. I told him I’ve been watching your videos and wanted to get a tourniquet, chest seals, npa, space blanket, and some combat gauze. He said that’s exactly what he’d get. This is my sole income and I’m not getting rich (got hurt in a car accident in 2012 when someone rear ended my tow truck on the freeway) but I know the value of a life. Last week I got a rescue orange cat from you. Celox gauze is way out of my price range, but I have a molle 2 med pouch with the cat and 5 rolls of gauze. Hoping to add the other stuff as soon as income allows. Thank you for your videos. You don’t need to be a brain surgeon to perform life saving techniques such as applying chest seals and tourniquets. I’ve been watching a lot to better prepare myself in case of an emergency. Being in a rural area, volunteer fire has to go from wherever they are to the firehouse to get the truck, and respond from there. Plenty of time for someone to bleed to death. Again, thank you. You may have already saved someone’s life.
Yeah, some professionals think they've seen it all, and to be fair, most arterial bleeds are pretty minor and stop with pressure. They may not have had the experience of arriving on scene 7 minutes after the call to find a patient spraying blood up the walls and roof trying to make a tourniquet, having lost a litre of blood already after a circular saw accident. I've seen a near amputations that seemed to barely bleed, but once in a while you realise the patient needs to be on the operating table now, and you’re an hour on blue lights from hospital. First and only time I've spent under 5 minutes on scene, it took two tourniquets before it stopped, I genuinely thought I was going to break one of them, they're not kidding about how tight you have to wind them! I've seen blood from a botched arterial sample spray across the room, but until you've seen a proper arterial bleed you can't believe how hard and fast it is. 5 litres won't go a long way if you don't stop it, and there's only so much IV fluid you can give, water boosts blood pressure, but can’t carry oxygen.
It's not a job you see often at all, and despite the initial severity, the patient was very quickly more concerned about the long term effects the injury would cause. Rarely used, often forgotten about, but if you ever happen to need a tourniquet, MAN do you NEED one! I've got one in my car and one at home, on the off chance that I or anyone I know ends up with one of those one-in-a-million injuries severe enough to kill you before you can even get to hospital, which does happen Teeshirts and belts work great in films, but they don't tighten anywhere near enough for some injuries.
There's few items that are so important if you need them that it's worth having them about, I can't think of any other cheap, compact piece of medical equipment that will make the difference between life and death, especially if immediate medical care isn't possible.
Skinnymedic mentioned it in a other video but I think it's a great tip that belongs to this video.
When you fold your TQ bend the red tip back to itself. So you have a flap to rip your tourniquet open. Even with cold hands
Also helps to offset the red tag to one side or the other so that it's not perfectly aligned with the rest of the tourniquet. Makes it easier to grab ahold of.
Added a couple of hairbands to my SOE EDC w/Cobra belt buckle to hold my 5.11 Tactical pant up. The hairbands hold the tourniquet to my belt... This is a must for dangerous sports and not just shooting dangerous paper targets. Now part of my up-graded EDC. Thank you for the video ! tjl
Thank you skinny I went with Recon Medical for my tourniquets super heavy-duty well-made come with their own plastic bag after you get your tourniquet staged thank you by the way for the video you explained it so is easy to understand so after you get your tourniquet staged it goes right in that plastic bag and ready to go in a holster or on your belt or on your trauma kit fantastic thank you
Just put my order in for the Gen 7 CAT. Once you think about having such items in your kit, I find it really hard to not have them, hope I never have to use it but I'll sure be glad I have it if I do. Thanks SKMD!
Thanks
Thanks skinny medic. This video really came in handy. BTW thanks for the stickers & patches u gave me at the NRA Indy ‘19 Show!
Short, sweet, and to the point. Thank you man, this video helped me out.
Awesome!
Great advice man, I'm going to stage mine like this right now.
Brilliant video! I just received my first CAT and was wondering exactly this.
You rock.
Both handed access! Great point
Thanks for these simple but important tips.
Haha...ask your wife or girlfriend to help you measure
;-)
MurphTX Touchè
my girlfriend always has to bust out the magnifying glass.
Damnit. Up until I asked my wife to measure my I had her convinced it was 13 inches long.
It does really helpful videos, good day to you Sir and hope you all safe out there.....I'm gonna orders mine too.
Great info as always!! However, you are using both hands when you put on the CAT in the beginning of the video. I would have liked to see how to apply it with one hand only - Now there's an idea for your next CAT video :-)
Dear skinny medic one day I was waiting a home got scared and graped a knife for self defense well my dog barked made me jump and drop the knife sadly it landed stabbing me in my leg near the artery I remembered your video applied my cat turnikit two inches above the injery and did all the stuff you said to do and after stopping the bleeding I drove to the hospital where I learned if I didn't did what I did the t would have died so after surgery to fix and stitch I was in the clear so think you for the knowledge ended up saving my life I couldn't think you enough
guns and knifes If the injury was severe enough to require a tourniquet, you never should have tried to drive yourself to the hospital. The moment you applied the tourniquet and controlled bleeding, you should have called EMS to transport you. You could have passed out and caused a severe car crash killing you and others.
Most of the guys I know will tell me they have one end of the tourniquet displayed outside the left or right pocket of their M.T.P's. from recent experiences in the sandpit. Seems like a good idea.
Point 2 Many guys actually cut the high vis tip off ( mainly for tactical reasons in the sandpit)
REMEMBER TO WRITE THE LETTER '''''T'''''' ON THE CASUALTIES FOREHEAD PRIOR TO A MEDIVAC)
Bin them if & when they become soiled with the '''red'' stuff & get a new one.
Point 3
Civvy first aid instructors will now strongly advise against deploying C.A.T's in a civvy situation. & will NOT train civvy first aiders/responders in there use. HOWEVER, those who have served in the green are usually very familiar with their use. Members of my family can apply one inside three seconds.
Brilliant piece of kit... Just wish they had been around in the N.I. deployments ( & the Falklands)
Thanks Skinny. I need to get a CAT tourniquet. I had a close call this weekend while shooting a defensive pistol class. I will PM you later this week and give you details. I have been in xray and doctors office.
email me at smsurvival@skinnymedic.com
As a right handed person I'd be keen to know how you'd apply the tourniquet to your right arm - assuming it was now out of action and bleeding profusely? Could that affect how we should stage the tourniquet? And any advice on how we should then (self) apply it?
Is there any issue with storing cat tourniquets in a hot car during summer? Didn’t know if this would damage them. Thanks
I don’t need any help measuring 6 inches...
For anybody that needs a measurement tool for that 6-8 inch reference, remember what they taught us when making bunk in the Army. A dollar bill is roughly 6 inches long.
Have you done a video on how you stage your tourniquet on your belt?
@1:35 my wife says, “It’s double what you think!” Damn
Wow that belt tip was very very helpful. Now I know why I couldn't get tight with my one hand!
Just checked all my CATs and 2 weren't staged correctly. They were set for legs... That could have been bad. Thanks for the reminder. I'm still running some of the "old" black tipped ones. I figure an old style one is better then none.
Glad this video helped!
Helpful video man. Thanks
Awesome thank you for watching!
Thank you. You're awesome!
Why not set it up for legs? Wouldnt it serve for arms too and be the best way to go with older gens?
Thanks for the info Skinny Medic.
Thank you for watching
The manufacturer's guidelines on use does not recommend putting the band inside the windlass retention clip. For ALL NA CAT applications, fasten the velocro around the limb until you reach the clip. Stop there, let the extra hang. Don't wrap over the clip or through the clip, simply stop when you get to it. I'm 99.9% sure it doesn't matter, but I trust the manufacturer's guidelines especially as they specifically mention not to do this.
Thanks, it helped a lot. Just one question. Can you reuse a cat tourniquet? I know it sounds weird but after you have used it, can you told fold it up and use it again?
One time use Only!!! Get a blue one to train with.
The matt was here.... Thumbs up... I need to get one of these..
I am glad!
Thank you! I was set up incorrectly and could only get to it from one hand.
I have to get a couple of these. ..
Awesome, thanks for the help!
Thank you for this awesome Info ☺
Thank you
Helped me big time!
how long is the shelf life on the CAT tourniquet and how do you check it
hey skinny medic I know this is an old video but hopefully you can respond, say i have a CAT tourniquet on for a few hours and eventually receive proper medical care, how would you/the doctors safety remove the tourniquet after medical care
CGM hope you got your answer but if it’s on for several hours that limbs getting amputated so .. it don’t really matter. You’d just undo the windlass and remove
I mounted mine using the grenade tab on an lc2 ammo pouch
"6 to 8 inches... ask your wife how to measure..." too easy. LOL.
So I’m a high school student and I keep a few in my bag and one on my belt.
Yes, it was very helpful
Thanks Boney medik. U da man!!
Shouldn´t you have your pre-gen7 CAT prepared for self aid in the same way as you mentioned for a leg injury? The teeths has their purpose so would be better to have all CATs threaded around the teeths in a buckle and out. No offence, i have this info from a combat medic that applied as much CATs in a real life than i will ever do in my training :) Sorry for my English.
what are good EDC Pouches pockets and organizer?
If you have the black tips should I switch them out for the gen 7? or will the older ones still be ok?
The gen 6 CATs are still effective. The redesign of the friction adapter, thicker windless and better velco of the gen 7s are just improvements. If you run gen 6s, i recommend carrying 3 in medical tape to secure the TQ after application.
Thanks for info
The black tips are the first generation, they will still work but upgrading to a red tip may be worth the upgrade in the future.
The black tips are Gen 1
right thats why I asked about if i should upgrade or not?
"Ask your girlfriend or wife to measure for you" 😂
Is the C-A-T Tourniquet a one time use item or reusable?
I used mine on a guy who was in a bad car crash. after it's put on for the most part just a doc will remove it. So yes it's a 1 time deal. Would be hard to get clean as well..
They are one time use. I recommend buying at a minimum two. One for real world and one for training. They make training CAT tqs. They are solid blue in color. If you use a regular black or orange one for training, then write training across the time flap so you don't mix them up.
Forgot to mention, you can keep reusing the training one for practice. Just don't crank it down over and over to cut off blood flow. When applying a CAT, you need to make sure you pull hard and get it as tight as you can before twisting the windless. It should take no more than three full turns of the windless to cut of the massive hemorrhage.
thanks for this vid
Good video
Thanks
I have a pretty handy 6-8 inch reference. HAH!!! thanks for the vid SM.
;-)
6-8 seems pretty standard. 8 is better haha
Can I share your videos on my Facebook page Trauma Kits SA
Yes please do
My Cat is already folded this way
🔥
👍
What just a minute........you IMMEDIATELY used your 'dead' arm to hold up the tourniquet. If you were bleeding and yelling in pain there is no way you would use that 'dead' arm. Let have a replay and show it like you say.
👍🇺🇸
LOL We all know women can't measure. They've been told all there lives that's 3 inches is really 10!!
haha true
& then you woke up!!!
Why is the smaller plastic buckle under the windlass so darn sharp? It cuts right into my skin when I crank down on the windlass.