If the cut is deep and long you have both hands applying firm pressure on the cut but the bleeding does not stop what should you do- your Buddy can't help the sight of blood makes him sick?

Answer 1

Be prepared before this happens. Take a first aid course, check with the Red Cross, or a local hospital for classes. Buy a first aid kit and keep it in your car, keep one at home and take one with you on any wilderness outings. Read the manual that comes with it now, before you need it.

Once the injury has occurred:

Have your buddy call 911 immediately. Try to stay calm, sit or lie down.

In the meantime, continue methods to control the bleeding. Not knowing where the cut is makes a difference in how to answer. If you can reach it with both hands, then there are a few obvious places.

Some place on your head is less likely, how would you know the cut is deep and long? But assuming it is possible (looking in a car mirror, for example), then have your buddy try to find a rolled up piece of clothing or other large clean piece of fabric material that you can use to cover the wound while you continue to apply pressure. The object will allow your hands to be more effective at stopping the bleeding. Wounds on the head bleed a lot and may seem worse than they are, stay calm.

Convince your friend that he can cowboy up and to try to be strong about the sight of the blood; people can take control of themselves in situations like that when talked to calmly and rationally. If the fabric "dressing" on the wound covers most of the blood, then he may even be able to help with the application of pressure using that covering. If not, keep him busy finding more clean towels, or other fabrics to use as dressings so you can change to a clean dry one if the first one gets saturated. Keep the used ones for the emergency personnel to see to help the gauge the blood loss.

Another help your friend can provide is to gather spider webs. Spider webs will stop bleeding when put over and on cuts.

If the wound is on the chest, or abdomen, then the same type of dressing will help in the same ways. Try to sit or lie on a hard surface so that the pressure against your trunk is more effective than if you are applying pressure with nothing to push against to increase the pressure. If your breathing is impacted from a deep cut into the chest, try to first cover the wound with some plastic under the fabric to help make the cut as air tight as possible until help arrives. If your buddy is still no help, have him look nearby to find another person to come help until the emergency personnel arrive. But he should not go where he can not watch for the emergency help and be sure they find you, or stay away too long.

If the cut is on a lower extremity, then there are a few options in addition to the rolled fabric. Your friend can find or make long strips of fabric from a shirt to wind or tie over the fabric dressing on the wound. Now if the blood is no longer visible to the friend have him help apply pressure to the pressure point of the femoral artery. You will need to have him or you press very hard on that point to slow the blood flow into the leg. The femoral artery pulse/pressure point is located at the groin just where the leg meets the lower body, toward the inside of the leg. Feel for the pulse and when you find it, push there and hold.

If you are in the wilderness and help will not be able to get there quickly or within the hour, you may have to resort to a tourniquet tied around the leg just above the location of the cut if the pressure has not stopped or significantly slowed the bleeding. You can make a tourniquet from a belt, neck tie, piece of rope, bungee cord, electrical wire, fabric strip, or similar materials. Try the pressure first and only put on the tourniquet as a last resort. Damage can be permanent to a limb deprived of blood for long periods of time, you may have to make the decision if the bleeding continues whether to risk the limb with a tourniquet or risk your life from a bleed out.

Keep both hands firmly on the laceration, applying pressure and raising the arm above the heart.