Without bleeding control, a severed artery can drain enough blood from your body to cause death in under five minutes. That is less time than it takes for an ambulance to arrive at most emergency scenes. Thankfully, bleeding control is easy, straightforward, and something anyone can do. You don’t need to be a medical professional; with just a little first aid training anyone can go from a bystander to a hero who keeps someone alive.
What Makes Bleeding Severe?
Not all cuts require bleeding control or medical aid. While even the smallest cuts can get infected and should be treated quickly and properly, most of the time they will simply heal on their own. Bleeding control starts with recognising the signs and symptoms of different types of bleeding.
Venous bleeding involves the veins that carry blood toward your heart. The blood appears darker red and flows steadily rather, however damage to a major vein can still be life-threatening if the bleeding is not stopped.
Arterial bleeding is the most dangerous form of external bleeding. Arteries carry oxygen-rich blood away from your heart under high pressure. When an artery is damaged, bright red blood spurts out in rhythmic pulses that match a heartbeat.
First Aid For Severe Bleeding Control
The first step in bleeding control is to protect yourself. If you have time, wash your hands and put on rubber gloves before attempting to control severe bleeding. If an object is embedded in a wound, do not remove it.
Your focus is to stop blood loss by applying direct pressure continuously at the source of the bleeding for at least three minutes or until the bleeding stops. Ideally, you’ll have sterile gauze, a clean dressing or a bandage, but any clean cloth will do. In circumstances where nothing else is available your bare hands can be used for management of bleeding, but this should be a last resort due to the risk of infection for both the rescuer and the injured person.
While maintaining pressure, place a dressing directly over the wound, and use your other to wrap a bandage around the limb or body part. The bandage should be tight enough to maintain constant pressure on the wound but not so tight that it cuts off circulation entirely to uninjured tissue below the wound. If blood soaks through the first layer, add another dressing on top and continue applying pressure. Do not remove dressing as this can disrupt clotting and restart bleeding.
Wound Packing for Deep Wounds
Some wounds are too deep for pressure alone to control the bleeding. Wound packing involves filling a bleeding cavity with gauze or haemostatic dressing to create internal pressure directly on the damaged blood vessel. Pack the wound until it is completely filled then apply very firm pressure as normal.
Tourniquet Use: When It Is Appropriate, How to Apply One Correctly
A tourniquet is a band used for life-threatening bleeding from a limb that cannot be controlled by direct wound pressure alone. An improvised tourniquet made from a triangular bandage and a rigid object can work when commercial tourniquets are unavailable. Use of a tourniquet can cause tissue damage, and so they are reserved for only the most serious situations, such as amputations or when there are multiple casualties.
To apply a tourniquet wrap it at least five centimetres above the wound on the victim’s bare skin, then tighten the band. Never place a tourniquet directly over a joint. After application, do not loosen or remove the tourniquet. Note the exact time it was applied to inform the paramedics as they should only be removed by medical professionals.
Stop the Bleed
Severe bleeding can kill in minutes, but it does not have to. When you know how to control bleeding from an extremity, the loss of blood won’t seem so scary. With a nationally accredited first aid course, you can learn the bleeding control techniques to step up when someone needs you most.
FAQs
How Quickly Can Someone Die From Severe Bleeding?
A person with a major arterial haemorrhage can bleed out and die within three to five minutes.
Can I Be Sued for Trying to Help Someone Who is Bleeding?
Australian Good Samaritan legislation provides legal protection to people who provide emergency assistance in good faith. As long as you act reasonably and without expectation of payment, you are protected from liability even if the outcome is not perfect.
How Do Blood Thinners Affect Bleeding?
People taking anticoagulants like warfarin or aspirin will bleed longer because their blood does not clot as quickly.
