Nov 2023. Blues Vol 39 No. 11

56 The BLUES
person’s limb, are wide enough
to properly do the job, come
with a built-in windlass (stick)
or ratchet to tighten them so
they stanch blood loss, and some
have a clip or another device to
keep the windlass in place after
it has been tightened down.
As for training, agencies thinking
of issuing tourniquets to
their officers don’t have to worry
about a lot of time lost to training.
Officers can be trained very
quickly in when and how to use
a tourniquet and what to do after
it is applied.
SAVING LIVES
Thousands of American law
enforcement officers are now
carrying trauma kits that include
tourniquets on patrol, and they
have proven to be lifesavers.
Trained officers can stop blood
loss when civilians or fellow
officers are injured in accidents
or wounded in attacks. The purpose-built
tourniquet is so easy
to use that wounded officers
have even put them on themselves,
saving their own lives.
Last May Philadelphia police
officer James McCullough was
shot through the upper thigh
by a suspect who was trying to
steal a car, according to police.
McCullough realized that he was
bleeding out and needed immediate
intervention to stanch the
flow. He applied a tourniquet to
his own leg and likely survived
the incident because of it.
But perhaps the most widely
known use of a tourniquet
to save an officer wounded in
action occurred in Boston last
October. In that incident, two
Boston officers responded to
a domestic violence call that
was a fight between two roommates.
When they arrived, a man
opened fire on them. Officer Matt
Morris was hit in the leg, severing
a major artery. He survived
because his fellow officers had
been trained in what to do. They
put pressure on the wound and
applied a tourniquet.
The reason a tourniquet was
available to save Officer Morris
was former Boston Police
Commissioner Ed Davis’ post
Marathon Bombing policy. Every
Boston officer is now issued a
tourniquet and trained to use it.
Issuing trauma kits with tourniquets
to law enforcement
officers and training them to
effect emergency medical care
is a revolutionary concept that
once would have been unthinkable.
But when blood is pumping
out of a person’s torn limb, they
may not survive long enough
for paramedics to arrive. Time is
blood is what emergency medical
personnel say.
And as we all know, blood is
life.