Thursday, September 13, 2007

Warrior Wear Army Clothing Has Built-in Tourniquet

A military clothing company has come up with Warrior Wear, a line of trousers and shirts with I.T.S. &mdash that's an integrated tourniquet system &mdash attached for those fighting on the front line. If you are hit, you just pull the corresponding tourniquet tight to stem the bleeding from the wound. There are four tourniquets on the trousers, and four on the shirt (the short-sleeved version has two), which can immediately be applied to the wound by either the wearer, his buddy or a medic. As well as helping to stop deaths in the field, it is thought that using the I.T.S. will dramatically speed up the time it takes to recover from extreme blood loss injuries.

The system was devised by Dr. Kenneth Rose, a former Army surgeon who spent several years in the military. "The majority of preventable deaths come from loss of blood resulting from arm and leg wounds that are not protected by body armor," he explained. "The fact that you can always find the tourniquet with the Integrated Tourniquet System and the speed with which you can immediately apply it will dramatically impact not only loss of life but also the amount of time that it takes to recover from extreme blood loss injuries."

Warrior Wear is currently in the last phase of testing, and should be available in the first quarter of next year. [Blackhawk! via Medgadget]

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