When a fellow backpacker slipped while carrying his pack saw, he cut his upper thigh pretty badly. Although no major vessels were involved, the wound bled profusely. This QuikClot product was applied to the wound with direct pressure and then bound in place. While the wound was not extraordinarily severe, the injured man was quite upset by the amount of blood he appeared to be losing prior to application of the dressing. Once the QuikClot product was in place and a thick sterile pad secured over it, only a small amount of blood was visible. This added tremendously to reassure the injured man that he was not in great danger from bleeding. Others in our party assisted the man back to the trail head and he was taken to a local hospital where the laceration was sutured.
This product is an absolute 'must have' item in any aid kit for people working or enjoying the out of doors in locations distant from immediate medical care. This order was a replacement for the product I used. As an aside recommendation, QuikClot Sport is very effective when used in conjunction with an 'Israeli-style' combat dressing (easily applied by one person or the injured victim).
This review is based on 1st hand experience (unfortunately).
I awoke one morning to a frantic knock on the bathroom door saying someone cut their finger badly. I hustled out of the shower & went down to the kitchen to see what was going on. To my surprise, it wasn't a cut -but rather an amputation of 1 & 1/2 finger tips. A kitchen towel was wrapped around the hand, but the blood was easily soaking the towel & running down their arm. I ran to get a pack that was in my gun bag & a second one in my diaper bag. By the time I got back (which wasn't more than a minute or so) the kitchen towel had been swapped out & a huge wad of gauze bandage was now dripping red. I told the victim to press the quikclot on & don't remove it for any reason. Within 30 seconds, the bleeding had stopped... period. There was no more bleeding until we got to the ER & the quikclot was removed by the doctor. At that point, it bled profusely again because the cut had knicked an artery.
Needless to say, I'm impressed by this product & have urged everyone I know to keep a few around! I now keep one in every vehicle, first aid kit & "high risk" activity bag.
My only complaints: they are rather pricey (for "what ifs") & a single small pack is really not enough. The small size really limits the types & sizes of injuries that the quikclot can be applied to.
All in all -every household should have at least a couple on hand. For the price of a few beers or coffees, you could save someone's life. Buy it.
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My 73 year old Father slipped while field dressing an elk. His knife went into his leg and nicked his femoral artery. 40 miles from anything, and a spurting wound. We applied a Quick Clot sponge, and he's still with us. One and a half hours later we got him to the ER. The doctor said it absolutely saved his life. I still have my Dad because of this product. I can't imagine a better outcome, because of Quick Clot.
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Quick clot is a natural enzyme that starts the blod clotting process in the body. Our bodies have small amounts of it that are there naturally, except for hemophiliacs. Quick clot is simply concentrated to a high level like vitamin supplements.
The US Army & Marines have chosen quick clot to stop battlefield bleeding and loss of blood volume and pressure. If it's good enough for the government, and been extensively tested by them then its ready to go for me. It's a natural product that does the job without nasty chemicals.
You should also have a roll of gauze to go with the quick clot to hold it in place. Pressure is an important part of stopping bleeding but all you get in the package is a 5x5" square that is embedded with crystals of the quick clot agent once they get bloody and wet they go to work right away promoting clotting. You need gause to hold the quick clot in place over the wound especially during the first 10 minutes (the clot will form in 5 minutes based on medical testing on the femeral artery being sliced open to insert a port to run a catheter up to the heart. The quick clot is put over the hole in the artery and held in place for 5 minutes, then removed with a nice clot formed over the artery. Keep in mind the arteries have the higher pressure and are harder to stop bleeding because they are high pressure blood vessels.
Finally, it's been shown that an individual can apply and secure a quick clot bandage by themselves, effectively self-treating a major blead without outside help. That's impressive, and that's why the quick clot and the gause roll are the first two items in my medical kit when I am out in no mands land.
It comes in 25g and 50g sizes, the 50g is a better deal and bigger. Get this one.
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Not my first choice for topical hemostatic product.
Work at a place that stocks these and used them several times.
IMHO...
Works moderately well if that. But there's better stuff out there. Step up to a 2nd or third generation product.
Quick clot is essentially a mineral powder. First gen of product caused too much burning and got gravely mess in wounds that could cause clots (like intravascular bad ones.) But now they've solved those problems (so that's good) by reducing the heat and putting it in a tea bag... Problem is it doesn't seem to work very well on big bleeds, and the bag kinda limits the use. You have to get the bag onto the actual wound, if you have an avulsed scalp lac it's hard to pack it all the way up there, and if you open the bag (not recommended) the gravely stuff will be imbedded in the wound. Plus if I use this on myself (possible) then I have to really stuff the tea bag (ouch) into a fresh wound. I still have a couple lying around, they're cheap and plentiful and we still have them at work but they're not my first go-to item (even as last resort.)
Since I've used a couple of the Chitosan based products with better results. IMHO I think studies show they have better results, seem to have the mechanism of action that I think is better and doesn't have the clots or gravel issue.
Also I tend to go a bigger size. We've stocked one of these sponges in a kit for awhile and they seem too small for really big stuff and un-needed for small stuff.
So whatever you buy (quick clot or other) think of this... If the cut is small enough for the littlest version of the product to treat did it need it anyway? And will that littlest bag of hemostatic work on the biggest thing you really need it for?
(And again just imho, I stock 2 packets of 30g Cellox powder in my hip bag. After seeing accidents like Circ-saw to leg, skill saw to arms or hands, axe slipped into foot, knife wounds both slashing and penetrating, guardrail at speed to abdomen and leg, car window through hand and arm, fall through glass and arterial bleeds to arms, chainsaw injury etc... I want my stuff big, fast and easy; a CAT tourniquet, a couple rolled gauze, a big packet of hemostatic (either rolled gauze or powder), and tape.)
I'm an RN working CCU. I've had mine for a year. The sound is acceptable for general physical and lung/heart sounds assessment and the tubing is long enough for my needs. I can easily hear murmurs and bruits and faint lung sounds. But the stethoscope has some design issues. The heavy weight tubing is stiff and the connection between the diaphragm/bell is too loose for my liking. This combination causes the connection between the two to twist and lose it's ability to conduct any sound. I have to adjust my grip, angle, and sometimes ear pieces in order to get a good assessment done. This really slows me down, especially if a quick assessment is necessary. It's a durable stethoscope, but it's design slows down assessments. Also, the pediatric diaphragm is difficult to remove and put back on. It takes some bending and prying to get it right. I'm switching to an easily convertible stethoscope such as ADC or Prestige. I've given it 3/5 for its sound.
