It wasn’t the first call that we’ve received from a graduate, but it had unique circumstances and reinforced what we have always stressed; train like a life depends on it, because it does. Our COO, Jarrad, took the original call and told me the story second hand, then we invited our alumnus and graduate, Dan, to join us on Student of the Gun Radio to tell his inspiring story.
Sharing the Lessons Learned
I guess it was around 25 to 30 years ago that it was driven home to me that as a patrolman, even though providing medical care wasn’t my primary job or specialty, I was almost always on the scene of an injury before the ambulance arrived. It’s not hard to figure out why. Police officers are constantly moving around amongst the people while the paramedics and EMTs don’t get in the truck until a call comes in.
In the old days, prior to the GWoT, unless a cop doubled as an EMT, the first aid training that most police officers had was Red Cross basic first aid in the academy and then annual CPR/Heimlich re-certs. That was it. The only “medical gear” I had on my duty belt was a pouch that held two pairs of blue nitrile gloves.
Thankfully, due to our GWoT experience, traumatic medical training lessons have spilled over from the military to law enforcement and the world of the everyday American citizen. When I was teaching T.C.C.C. (Tactical Combat Casualty Care) in 2007, virtually zero police agencies were issuing the gear or teaching officers how to use commercially made tourniquets to stop life-threatening hemorrhaging. Fortunately, that situation has changed. It wasn’t easy, but it was worth it.
“Victim with a Gunshot Wound to the Leg”
The moment the dispatcher on the other end of the radio sends you to a call where someone is injured, particularly from a gunshot wound, the hair on the back of your neck sticks up and your heart rate begins to race. You can’t get there fast enough. As you stomp the accelerator and negotiate curves with the squeal of tires, all you’re thinking is “please be alive when I get there.”
That was exactly how our alumnus, who was a police officer, described his feelings as he raced out into the county to where a man had called in with a gunshot wound to the leg. “Please be alive.”
When our hero arrived on scene, he found the victim still alive, sitting in the bed of his pickup truck. As he told us, “When I climbed into the back of his truck, I slipped on the blood, there was so much of it. The guy was alive, but he was no longer human colored. I grabbed the Rapid tourniquet off of my gear and told him, ‘this is going to hurt,’ then I wrapped it ‘high and tight’ around his leg.”
Further details indicated that — somehow, it’s not clear at this time — the victim had negligently shot himself in the knee area with a .357 Magnum revolver. To make matters worse, the victim had to get back to his truck and then drive to a spot where he could get phone service. By the time he got a signal and called 9-1-1, he had bled all over the inside of the truck cab. When our hero arrived, he saw that the victim had tried to use an extension cord in the truck bed as an improvised tourniquet to stem the blood flow.
“A few minutes later, another officer arrived,” our alumnus stated. It seemed like this guy’s leg was still oozing so I thought, let’s put a second tourniquet on him. My partner handed me the windlass-style tourniquet that he had and when I tried to tighten it down on the victim’s leg, it broke. I used to carry that kind of tourniquet, but after your class I switched to the Rapid TQ.”
Lessons and Take-Aways
Let’s go back a little more than a year prior to the traumatic injury that Dan had to deal with. He qualifies as a good cop, a responsible one, because he devoted his own time and resources to taking additional training. Sadly, the vast majority of officers today will only ever take the training that’s mandatory. Remember, I speak from experience, I wore the badge for two decades.
Dan signed up for and took our Martial Application of the Rifle R201 class in late April of 2024. He brought the rifle that he carries with him on patrol and I’m pleased to state that he was honored as the top student in that class.
‘What does that have to do with trauma and tourniquets?, you are asking yourself. There are several training exercises in our classes that are based on real life incidents and focus on fighting through problems. Without giving away the secret sauce recipe, in one of the drills, students are required to apply a tourniquet to themselves.
“I remembered when I was in your class,” Dan related, “and I tried to use the windlass-tourniquet that I had been carrying. It came unraveled and I was having a hard time. You threw me a RATS TQ and I put it on. When the class was over you gave me the RATS and said ‘Here, take this, I don’t want you to die on duty.’ I had been carrying it ever since.”
Dan further went on to say, “When my partner’s tourniquet broke, I thought, damn, if that was all we’d had we’d have been screwed.”
Self-Aid, Buddy Aid, Professional Aid
When we taught TCCC to the troops the hierarchy and mantra we taught was; Self-Aid, Buddy Aid, Professional Aid. By that we meant to reinforce to our students that they needed to be prepared to render medical treatment to themselves and to their buddies while they were waiting for the medical professionals to arrive with the big bag of gear.
“Everybody that carries a firearm needs to have medical equipment with them, period.” Dan stated emphatically and he speaks from experience.
In the aftermath, it was determined that the victim had not hit an artery with that self-inflicted gunshot wound to the knee. The bleeding was venous and capillary. And, given what we know, if it had been arterial, we wouldn’t be talking about this because someone simply would have found the victim dead out in the county later.
By the time our hero got to the victim, he had lost a tremendous amount of blood. The tourniquet application stopped him from dropping into “irreversible shock,” but Dan also had to cover him with a jacket because he was getting hypothermic.
No one plans to experience a traumatic injury, but it happens. Whether you’re hunting, fishing, hiking, taking a trip to the shooting range, etc. if you need an ambulance, it’s going to be a long time coming. You need to keep as much blood on the inside as possible.
“I was with him for about fifteen to twenty minutes before the ambulance got there.” Dan related to us. As we discussed at the outset of this article, that situation is very common.
Are You Ready?
During a previous article published here at SNW, we posed the question “What’s it going to take?” to convince people to get traumatic medical training? Our hero, Dan, fortunately received training in the Police Academy, something that’s relatively new. He reinforced his training by going out on his own to take more. He gained insight and experience about using trauma gear, even though he was in a rifle class.
Are you ready to stop making excuses and get the training? If you’re still not sure what it’s all about, I would suggest the book, “Beyond the Boo Boo: Traumatic Medical Training for Citizens.” If you’re motivated and inspired and in the western United States, we have a “Team Tactics & Trauma Medical” course coming up in July. We’d love to see you there.
The choice is up to you, if you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.
Authors note: Walmart has begun to install “stop the bleed” emergency medical stations next to the AED in the front of the stores. Check for them. There are tourniquets in them. If you have the training, the gear will be right there for you.
Paul G. Markel is a combat decorated United States Marine veteran. He is also the founder of Student the Gun University and has been teaching Small Arms & Tactics to military personnel, police officers, and citizens for over three decades.
There is no excuse not to carry medical… RATS work, mindset is king. Work the problem. Good write up.