‘The fate of the wounded lies in the hands of the one who applied the first dressing

This is a quote from a leading A&E doctor who presented a workshop on Catastrophic Bleeding at this year’s Trauma Care Conference.

It is a fact that a casualty can bleed out in less than 2 minutes if they have a severe or catastrophic bleed and that the actions of the First Aider/First on Scene are the ones that make the difference to whether a casualty survives.

We include treatment for Catastrophic Bleed in all of our L3 Emergency First Aid at Work and L3 Full First Aid Courses.  It’s extremely interesting stuff and more importantly, learning the skills needed to apply a tourniquet or pack a wound saves lives! 

Ask any doctor, paramedic or surgeon and they would agree that First Aiders play a most crucial life-saving part in the chain of survival.