Amplifying the signal: Article – I’m an American spending Thanksgiving as a combat nurse under fire on the frontline in Ukraine

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This article was linked to by someone in comments a few posts back. H/T to them for bringing it to my attention. I thought it was worth sharing. Regardless of your stance on this war (or any war), there are objective facts in this story worth noting. Apparently those knockoff tourniquets really do cost lives in the field.

I saw some of our soldiers pass away after receiving Chinese replica tourniquets. Tourniquets are devices used to apply pressure to a limb or extremity in order to stop the flow of blood, and I am heavily reliant on them. If you have arterial bleeding, you can die in three minutes, and if that tourniquet breaks, there’s no chance for you. Statistically, three out of four wounded soldiers in this conflict can die from hemorrhagic blood loss. So, high-quality tourniquets became a really important topic for me.

So when I say that it’s worth the extra $ to make sure youre getting the real deal rather than a ‘close enough’ cheaper Chinese copy, it’s not just me.

Read the article, its short and a bit empty but if you Google the gal in the article there’s some interesting stuff about what she’s doing.

In the meantime, the moral of this story is: some stuff is not worth choosing based solely on cost.

11 thoughts on “Amplifying the signal: Article – I’m an American spending Thanksgiving as a combat nurse under fire on the frontline in Ukraine”

  1. Following. Your Nov. 16th post did have reader contributed links to legit suppliers of medical gear. Thanks folks, I am a bit behind the curve in this subject matter. Can a nurse/medic Anon give tips or attributes to be watchful for when selecting these items or when encountering kit in the field. Surely the markets are as flooded with inferior knock offs. (as was the junk high cap magazines that don’t work during the AWB, nature abhors a vacuum, so imposters come out) A sharp eye out in Identifying proper brands, labeling, trademarks, NSN numbers etc would be a shrewed skill set to have as well in spicy. Keeping my precious bodily fluids contained means staying frosty.

    • Buy either from the source directly (narescue.com), or from a very, very reliable supplier (I use chinookmed.com).

      I don’t buy these from Amazon, Ebay, Etsy, out of someone’s trunk on the corner of walk and don’t walk, the cousin of friend’s barber. Just those two suppliers.

      I don’t buy parachutes, or brake shoes, or a few other things from sketchy sources either. Because my life may depend on them actually working, not being some airsoft fantasy

      • And there are many more scammers out there figuring out ways to make them.

        Buy from the source, and you don’t have to worry.

        • “If youre afraid of getting a rotten apple, don’t get it out of the barrel. Get it off the tree.” – S. Connery, “The Untouchables”

  3. I was recently watching a video of someone conducting live fire drills and practice setting TQ on his arm behind cover. I could see using the Chinese cheap knockoffs for practice drills only.

  5. Ouch! I’m all about value, but knock-offs that don’t perform when needed – NO THANKS! Being a good consumer is becoming more and more difficult. Thanks guys!

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