🕖 Reading Time, 1 minutes Used the X-Stat trainers in class today on a hog thigh with a simulated femoral artery laceration. This narrow wound track is a challenge to pack with Kerlix Gauze, the X-Stat 12 applicator worked awesomely.
MARCH: Massive Hemorrhage, Airway, Respiration, Circulation, Hypothermia Prevention
The easy to remember mnemonic MARCH reminds us of the priorities in treating casualties during TECC and TCCC situations. MARCH provides a framework to address immediate life threats and gives an organized approach to begin a casualty evaluation. The MARCH mnemonic is preferable to the ABCDE model because it takes into consideration the reason you need an airway and to be breathing is to circulate blood to the casualty’s brain. Recognizing that, the first step in our casualty evaluation should be to look for massive hemorrhage.
Once past massive hemorrhage, A-R-C is loosely approximated by A-B-C. H- is a reminder that a large number of traumatic casualties arrive at the emergency department or medical treatment facility hypothermic which dramatically increases their death rate.
The MARCH mnemonic can be applied to any patient, as the initial casualty evaluation usually rules out massive hemorrhage.
🕖 Reading Time, 2 minutes Moving casualties is always hard. Use a tool whenever possible. Even a folding chair makes it easier to carry casualties quickly and over distance. In A Book of Five Rings, Miyamoto Musashi says, “Make your …
Though we can’t replicate the pandemonium of a live class, we can teach you all the same skills online, at home, in your bunny slippers….
🕖 Reading Time, 1 minutes In our race to use tourniquets for controlling hemorrhage, we often lose sight of the value of good direct pressure as a hemorrhage control technique. Proven commercially available tourniquets are almost always going to be …
🕖 Reading Time, 3 minutes One of the best parts of the Special Operations Medical Association annual meeting is connecting with your peers and discussing issues we all deal with. One evening, while having a bar napkin discussion about prehospital …
The Field Triage Score simplifies this process 🕖 Reading Time, 4 minutes Reviews of most mass casualty events have shown that rarely is a preplanned triage system actually used in the event. Triage is a French word for sorting. Although …