The price of human life

In combat conditions a tourniquet is an important element of medical equipment. 

Oftentimes, without a tourniquet a soldier will die within just two minutes of receiving a wound. A properly applied tourniquet gives the time needed to transport the wounded from the battlefield to a field hospital and thus provides a chance to save the soldier’s life.

Arterial hemorrhage, i.e. damage of one of the main arteries, causes the heart to literally pump blood out of the body. You need to react immediately by stopping the bleeding with a tourniquet tightened slightly above the wound.

In theory, using a tourniquet is simple. First, you need to tighten the strap on the injured limb as firmly as possible, then improve the tightening by applying additional turns with a windlass – a plastic rod that, after tightening, needs to be hooked on a special clip. 

Unfortunately, as with everything, there are better and worse products. There are windlasses that break when being turned and tapes that do not stick to each other properly. Any such problem while applying the tourniquet drastically reduces the injured person’s chance of survival. 

Therefore, when the REACT Foundation buys tourniquets for Ukrainian troops fighting in the front line, we choose only certified and battle-tested ones, ensuring that they will not fail in an hour, or rather in a minute of need. We are aware that it’s a matter of seconds and what’s at stake is the life of the injured person. 

The price of a good quality certified tourniquet is approximately PLN 150. 

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