Emergency situations can happen in a flash - just ask father and SAM Medical customer Colter Hansen. He and his family were in the midst of an adventurous tour across the U.S. - 50 states in 50 weeks - when a sudden accidental injury occurred to his young daughter. Colter shares his story:
"We were about halfway through our 50 states in 50 weeks tour with my wife and our three daughters. We had our RV set up at our next stop- my wife had asked to set up the hammocks as it was nap time for the girls.
What felt like moments after setting up the hammocks, my five-year-old daughter stood up crying and holding her arm. You could tell she had broken it. She had rolled out of her hammock, fallen and broken her ulna. We immediately went to our climbing gear and grabbed the SAM° Splint. We always knew that we would need a first responder type of kit, and the SAM° Splint was an essential part of it. In fact, we have carried a SAM° Splint for the last five or six years. It's our go-to!
Having a First Aid Kit in case something happens is important. We are now even more grateful for it because the SAM° Splint secured her arm not only before we rushed to the hospital, but during the hospital visit when the PA did not splint it correctly. My wife is a pharmacist and I have taken many first aid courses over the years so we both knew it wasn't done right. We ended up putting the SAM° Splint over the other one until we could make it to the children's hospital in Jackson, Mississippi hours away so it could be reapplied correctly.
The SAM° Splint stayed on for three days- she was in some pain from the trauma to her arm, but otherwise felt okay. Recovery with a cast on to off was about 5.5 weeks. Now she's doing great, she's going back on the monkey bars! She actually didn't want to stop climbing the rock wall with her broken arm- she would scale up the wall with one arm. She likes to be a part of the action."
]]>There are many instances in which severe blood loss can pose life threatening outcomes. In this case, Police Officer Lorne Juday with Big Rapids Dept. of Public Safety was dispatched for a possible suicide attempt. He recalls the scene he arrived to:
Her boyfriend and a bystander attempted to apply pressure and use towels, which probably slowed some of the blood loss, but did not stop it. The towels and the woman's leggings were completely soaked when I arrived.
Once I saw the injury with blood pooled on the ground and how soaked the towels were, I thought, ‘Well, I've got something for that.’ I pulled the SAM XT out of my sap pocket, snapped it down to open the loop, and applied it. The tourniquet stopped - or at least severely slowed the major blood loss - even applied over her leggings. Once I tightened it until the pressure plate clicked, I only had to turn it 2 or 3 times to stop the blood flow.
By this point, she had lost a significant amount of blood and the SAM XT helped save her life by keeping what little blood she had left from leaking out!
I later learned from rescue that the hospital confirmed her femoral artery had been cut - the largest artery in your thigh.”
]]>A former Marine, Ian Six was part of the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) rescue team that was called to a metal scrap yard where a man had slipped on a conveyor belt and entrapped his leg between the gears. He recalls the scene of the incident:
“When I arrived, multiple fire agencies were onsite. The teams couldn’t tell if it was a nick or cut in the artery; or if the leg was being held together by the gears, preventing the man from bleeding to death. We also couldn’t see how bad the leg was harmed as a whole. Regardless, I saw blood start to drip through so we needed to move quickly, but no further extrication of the patient could be done until a proper tourniquet placement was obtained.
To do this, I climbed up and tried to use a standard CAT Tourniquet my rescue team stocks in our vehicle. I was able to get the strap through once, but couldn’t get it back through the second loop to secure proper tension to stop the bleeding.
I asked my partner to grab my personal bag where I carry the SAM XT. We fished it through the gearing, got it high in the hip pocket, and clicked it right into place without having to go through a second time. In a matter of seconds, we were able to control the bleeding and pull the man out safely.”
]]>A former combat military medic and an EMT for 13 years, Eddy Vershilovsky happened to be off-duty when a female pedestrian was severely injured after being hit by a vehicle. Now, a volunteer paramedic who works on trauma and pressure control, Eddy recalls the incident:
“She was unconscious upon arrival, with trauma to her chest, pelvis and right leg; and had active bleeding from her right knee. We immediately loaded the woman onto an ambulance that arrived shortly after, to a safer distance from the busy road. I saw that she would need hemorrhage control right away because bleeding was profuse and she was going into shock - she was pale, and either in cardiac arrest or close to it.
In Israel, silicone tourniquets are commonly used for bleeding injuries, which are typically effective; however, because it uses silicone material, you have to carefully stretch it to work it around a limb every revolution and do so without it slipping out of place. And, sometimes it doesn’t work around larger limbs. In this incident, the silicone tourniquet was too small to accommodate the patient’s limb. So I used the SAM XT-- I had it on me by chance. The SAM XT not only fit, but was a lot faster to apply. I just dropped the SAM XT around the patient’s leg, twisted the handle maybe once or twice, and secured it in place to stop the bleeding. It was really a great experience.
What impressed me most about the SAM XT was the speed of application and the speed of the hem control. I actually saw the bleeding diminish and then stop in a matter of seconds.”
]]>Having an emergency kit with medical devices on hand is important - not just for severe, life-threatening situations. Katie Contreras, a Training Lieutenant and EMT for San Marcos Hays County, was off-duty playing football when she suffered from a minor but painful injury. She recalls the incident:
“I play for the Austin Outlaws-- a semi-professional women's football team. We were in the playoffs against the Houston Power team. I was playing against their cornerback, and my finger got stuck in her jersey. We thought it was a jammed finger, so I buddy-taped it and then went back in to play.
A few hours later, I went to a local emergency room to check it out. A comminuted fracture (a break or splinter of the bone into more than two fragments) was shown; however, because one of the bone chips was underneath the knuckle, they opted not to splint it.
When I got home from the hospital later that night, I felt like my finger was unsupported and unstable so I reached for my SAM® Finger Splint in one of my home emergency kits. Compared to other devices I’ve used in the past, SAM® Splints just work better because they are adjustable depending on the type of injury. It has many more uses that it’s good for.
Since my injury happened on a Saturday, I had to wait until Monday before I could get in to see my orthopedic doctor. That means my finger would’ve been unsplinted for two full days -- having the SAM® Finger Splint on helped it to feel supported until I could see my doctor.”
]]>