Originally published on July 26, 2013
An inflatable abdominal tourniquet recently saved two men who were very close to bleeding the death. When people suffer a junctional hemorrhage, severe bleeding from the pelvis, groin, shoulder or base of the neck, it is nearly impossible to tie a conventional tourniquet tight enough around the torso of the patient to cut off the blood flow.
The new inflatable tourniquet, thanks to its mechanical design, is able to stop hemorrhages from these areas. The device is buckled around the patient's torso and then tightened by twisting a rod. Through a hand pump, a wedge-shaped bladder is then inflated.
By displacing the bowel and compressing the patient's aorta against his spine, the bladder halts all blood flow to the lower body, stopping the bleeding.
According to reports, the device could have prevented an average of three military deaths every month between October 2001 and April 2010.
The device has now been ordered by the US Army for combat medics in Afghanistan.
The first batch was delivered last summer.
According to Popular Science, the abdominal tourniquet is also now carried by special operation teams in the UK, Netherlands, Austria, Germany, France and Sweden. Junctional hemorrhage has been cited by the U.S. Army as one of the most common causes of death on the battlefield.
--------------------------------------------------------
TomoNews is your daily source for top animated news. We've combined animation and video footage with a snarky personality to bring you the biggest and best stories from around the world.
For news that's fun and never boring, visit our channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/TomoNewsUS
Subscribe to stay updated on all the top stories:
http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=TomoNewsUS
Stay connected with us here:
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/TomoNewsUS
Twitter @tomonewsus http://www.twitter.com/TomoNewsUS
Google+ http://gplus.to/TomoNewsUS
