as an adventure motorcyclist and a special operations veteran
i know how critical it is to be prepared for unexpected trauma
stick around and i'll show you what i carry in my trauma kit every day
welcome to MOTOTREK my name is Robert Burns i'm a decorated combat veteran
and a 20 plus year veteran of law enforcement and
today we're going to be talking about blunt force trauma and bleed trauma.
what would you do if you faced this situation? this is the time to be calm and deliberate yet
seconds count. now may mean the difference between life and death. how can he stop her bleeding? what
should he do first? let's say you're out on your adventure bike you're having a great time you've
got the right equipment on you end up slipping somewhere along the line on the asphalt on the
hard pack on a goat trail you put a foot down you put a hand down in the wrong location like a bush
a tree a piece of a fence and as the bike goes tumbling away and you tumble after it you start to
notice that you've got this bright red blood flow coming out from either the cuff of your jacket
or the cuff of your boot pant now is not the time to start looking around for where that cut is
this is a tourniquet there's a lot of myths that go along with using this piece of equipment people
would say that you're going to lose that limb that's not the case anymore when you're going to
use the tourniquet on the arm you want to try to get it up as high as possible nearest the armpit
where this brachial artery is if it can't go up here then you can put it as far down as here by
the elbow but you don't want to put it on anywhere where you've got two bones especially where two
bones cross over each other up here at the elbow joint and down here at the wrist if the injury is
to the leg you want to try to get the turner kit as high as you possibly can on the femur
you're trying to cut the blood flow off here where the femoral artery is but just like the
upper arm you don't want to put it anywhere where you've got two bones at especially where
two bones cross over each other at the joints the turner kit is for when you can't see the wound
but you know you're bleeding and you know you're bleeding a lot let's say you're bleeding and you
can see the laceration this medical equipment is called Quik Clot and it's fairly easy to use
you simply rip the top open pull out the packaging it's going to look a lot like gauze
and you're going to put it into the wound itself you're just going to push it right in
don't worry about putting any gloves on now's not the time to worry about sanitary conditions
and this is going to stop that bleeding in seconds in movies they typically show an arterial cut
as something that either trickles ... or something that sprays across the room however in real life
your blood flow is more akin to this so you've only got about 45 seconds to about a minute and
a half before you go unconscious depending on your your size your physical size and about two minutes
before you've passed away the medical equipment doesn't just include a tourniquet and the Quik
Clot this is my kit and the reason why i like this one is because it's readily identifiable you know
exactly what you're getting once you open this up up here at the top you've got wound care burn care
and blisters on this side you've got cuts and scrapes for those those minor cuts those minor
abrasions that you'll get you put your hand down when you slid the bike or your knee skipped across
the rock here you've got instruments it comes with surgical scissors and a small pair of needle
nose pliers as well here it clearly marks the stop bleeding kit making this obviously the one of the
most important pouches on this bag this is where you're going to get your quick clot this is where
the turner kit is and then here for medication this is where we've got our anti-inflammatories
and most importantly that Benadryl which is good for combating stings and allergic reactions
I've personalized this medical kit for me check the video description
for a listing of everything that's in it equally as important as knowing how to use the medical kit
is where you keep the medical kit you want to think about keeping it in a place that's easily
accessible for me on the right hand pannier at the very top of the case itself or here along the
cover you don't have to keep the medical equipment on the motorcycle you can keep it on your person
as well but you're going to want to keep in mind that you don't want to have something on the
extreme left side of your body when you've got an injury on the right side you're going to want to
put it someplace that you can get to it with both hands especially when you're injured for me i keep
it on a drop leg holster that i can turn over left or the right but there's other equipment available
such as a chest harness not only the drop leg harness and then the backpack but once again
you're going to want to make sure that it's in an area that you can reach it with either your left
or your right hand and you got to keep in mind too that under stress and when you're injured
your fingers don't operate as normal your hands are going to feel like they're in mickey mouse
gloves so you're going to want to keep things not only where you can reach it with both hands but
something simple that you can operate you may have noticed that i don't carry a splint for fractures
i myself i feel like I'm an expert in that field I've got 126 broken bones the key thing to
remember with fractures is you want to try to keep it as immobile as possible and that doesn't always
necessarily require a splint you just want to make sure the person isn't moving about and you want to
try to keep it above the heart line if you can by adding a splint i mean you're not quite sure
you don't have an x-ray machine on you you're not sure if the bone underneath it has been fractured
or if it's been shattered so you could potentially even make it worse so the just my personal choice
i don't carry the splint i just try to keep it in mobile i try to keep it above the heart line
and i treat the person for shock shock and set in at any moment from when you stub your toe to
when you've uh crashed on the bike or you've got a laceration or a compound fracture you're
going to want to try to keep the person as calm as possible they're going to want to stand up
and move around they're going to want to get up they're going to want to check their wound
they're going to become fixated on it and you're going to want to try to refocus them you're going
to try to ground them on something else talk about their name talk about where they're from
whatever you can do whatever topic you can bring up that is going to take their mind
off the wound itself and bring them back to something a little bit more hopeful
the more they talk about it the wounded and the more they want to get up and start walking around
the more damage they're going to end up doing you know you want to try to keep this person warm as
well unless of course it's a hot day then you want to try to keep the person cool but you want to try
to keep them grounded on something that's hopeful and away from them thinking about the wound
Chance saved her life... a person who knew first aid and knew what to do and controlled the
hemorrhage before the ambulance arrived. And saved her from bleeding to death. in the event of trauma
you are not going to rise to the occasion you're going to fall to your lowest level of training
in addition to carrying the proper medical gear you can attend training events at
your local Red Cross or your local medical center. A little real knowledge of first aid
gains so easily by attending a free instruction class see you out there ride safe
today and every working day at Red Cross classes throughout the country,
men and women are gaining knowledge of first aid to deal with most emergency situations