15 Comments

Why was a tourniquet ever deemed an only last resort option to begin with when it seems like an obvious life saving measure?

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The reason we are always fighting the last War is you cannot learn from a lesson until it is taught...

I think the trick is to not only learn faster, but apply it every bit as fast... It should not have taken them 6 yrs to realize the regular way wasn't working as intended in Iraq/Afghanistan...

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Thanks, Ryan - Another great post. And another factor affected by 'fighting the last war'. I'm surprised at the organizational inertia in the military medical community. I thought they would be the foremost sector where data is collected and disseminated with regularity. Silly me.

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Isn't targeting the unarmed medical services of an army against the laws of war or something?

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Re: TBI. With personal anecdotal usage and some really cool research have you heard of Q-collars? I'm imagining those would be very useful in arty threat regions. Oh, and you can totally do combat with it on even though my white ass head turns more tomatoey colored. $250 ain't cheap, but I also have grown fond of my brain even with it's disfunction. https://q30.com/products/q-collar-tactical?gad=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIofaF8J36_gIV4cbjBx2ElAZLEAAYASACEgIJU_D_BwE

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Finally subscribed! Great first article to read! Very informative. I often wondered why you didn’t see more tourniquets used in the early afghan/Iraq days. Thanks for clarifying.

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founding

Thank you. So many things I had not considered. The war in Ukraine is so incredibly different that Afghanistan. I am also so thankful you did your original video about almost losing your arm, and why a tourniquet is so important. It made me pick up a new First Aid course, to un learn all the things I had learned that are now disproven. The big difference between regular medicine and pseudo science, is that real medicine changes and improves. I'll respect anyone that chooses homeopathic medicine for themself, but know that it basically has little changed from first invented long ago. Updating is good, and applying what we learn quickly is so important!

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Served from 2010-2014. Definitely a part of the COIN generation. This conflict in Ukraine is completely different from what us US service members are trained and accustomed to from the last 20+ years. Our military definitely has a long way to go to bringing our forces up to par for the next LSCO.

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The note about "Universal TBI from Artillery fire" is interesting. I would love if you could expand on that. To me, TBI is brain damage, which is very serious. Are you saying that soliders that are hunkering down but getting shelled are all developing TBI? Even if they are otherwise unscathed?

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