Quikclot Sport Brand Advanced Clotting Sponge ,Stop Bleeding Fast, 50 Gram Package

When a fellow backpacker slipped while carrying his pack saw, he cut his upper thigh pretty badly. Although no major vessels were involved, the wound bled profusely. This QuikClot product was applied to the wound with direct pressure and then bound in place. While the wound was not extraordinarily severe, the injured man was quite upset by the amount of blood he appeared to be losing prior to application of the dressing. Once the QuikClot product was in place and a thick sterile pad secured over it, only a small amount of blood was visible. This added tremendously to reassure the injured man that he was not in great danger from bleeding. Others in our party assisted the man back to the trail head and he was taken to a local hospital where the laceration was sutured.

This product is an absolute 'must have' item in any aid kit for people working or enjoying the out of doors in locations distant from immediate medical care. This order was a replacement for the product I used. As an aside recommendation, QuikClot Sport is very effective when used in conjunction with an 'Israeli-style' combat dressing (easily applied by one person or the injured victim).

Edit 20-July-2015: I forgot about this post until Amazon notified me that another reviewer had commented that Quikclot is 'dangerous' and can 'cause heart attacks and strokes'. A spirited discussion between he and I followed. But, as he suggested, I did some updated reading to see if there was sufficient validity to his assertions and to determine if I should remove Quikclot from my IFAK and my general use FAK.

I searched the NIH database and the FDA database and found little. I found the bulk of material that condemns Quikclot on various ex-mil and survivalist-type Youtubes, blogs, and forums. Among the discussions about Quikclot, I found debates about using tampons as field dressings for GSWs, tons of material on the 'best' self-defence handgun caliber, and various conspiracy theories about the 'gubmint' (pick one). I tried to find something of a scholarly nature that condemns Quikclot as "dangerous" and did not. (If you find one, please post it here. I'd be grateful. By 'scholarly', I mean a peer-reviewed medical journal or publication. Please don't send me to Youtubes featuring arm-chair warriors, squad bay ninjas, and other such.)

I also reviewed my now five year-old post to see if I would have done anything differently for the injured man. His bleeding was profuse (mid-size lumen venous), but appeared non-arterial in nature. He had already saturated several ordinary, but thick, dressings. We were in a deep canyon about six miles from the trailhead and the trailhead was one to two hours from medical care. Cellular phones did not work because of the remote location. Because of the location, any outside medical aid would have to hump in and hump out after members of the party walked out to summon them. Air evac (if I could call them) was distant and would take almost as long to arrive and the man's condition would not (yet) likely meet their triage standard. Even if commo was up, as a medical provider at the scene, I had a responsibility to consider risks to the air crew in our canyon environ and the potential costs (to others) of tying up a limited resource for a casualty who was not (yet) critically ill. His main medical concern was not the bleeding. Shock was (is always) the the main concern and so was dehydration due to blood and insensate water losses. He was tolerating oral fluid replacement but there was a concern that, should frank shock set in, IV fluids would not be available. We had only a few more dressings left (2-3 ABDs, about a half-pack of 4-bys, and one Israeli-style dressing.) After the Quickclot was applied, it was covered with one of the ABDs and secured with the Israeli dressing. The remainder of the dressings were held in reserve for reinforcing as needed. The leg was elevated and cleaned of much of the blood. Once the leg was no longer heavily bleeding and cleaned up, the man's pre-shocky appearance abated. His HR and resps stabilized, his color returned, and his bearing and affect became more confident. He was 'chair carried' to the trailhead, packed into a POV, and sent to hospital for definitive care (the Quikclot wrapper was pinned to his shirt). I lost followup, except for a 'thankyou' telephone call a few weeks later.

In retrospect an in view of (anecdotal) assertions that Quikclot is dangerous and can cause heart attacks and strokes, I would still proceed in the same manner for this individual. His bleeding was not immediately life-threatening. His risk for shock in a remote setting would be life-threatening. I have estimated patient blood losses with some regularity. However, due to the passage of time, I cannot recall much now of this incident beyond the highlights. In rough ER terminology, his blood loss was somewhere between 'Oh-oh" and "Yikes"...but below, "Oh Sh**!)

I still think this is a good product. It's not something I would use for Little Petunia's scraped knee or Grandma's skin tear. I would characterize it much like CPR: It works well in many cases. But it might well cause harm if applied incorrectly or inappropriately.

People should not rely on online forums or comment boards for medical information. Every case is different and success of care depends on the skill and training of the available/willing provider and the conditions he/she is operating under. Outcomes are not guaranteed in the best circumstances and are especially fragile under back-country conditions. NO product should ever be used without thoroughly reading and understanding the instructions for use. That a product is offered for sale to the general public does not mean that every member of the general public should buy it and use it. Quikclot appears to be appropriately marketed for use when bleeding is not controllable by ordinary means AND professional medical care is distant or delayed.

I continue to carry this product and my favorable review of it is still my personal opinion of the product. That said, readers should not take my review as medical advice regarding the care or treatment of any field injury. I would, instead, recommend that they seek out the recommendations of health care professionals IN THE LOCATION WHERE THEY WILL BE OPERATING/RECREATING to determine what items might be helpful if they encounter a moderate to severe injury in that location. Learn CPR and acquire the most advanced (certified) form of first aid/first responder care you can handle comfortably.

Then, get out there and have some fun.

My 73 year old Father slipped while field dressing an elk. His knife went into his leg and nicked his femoral artery. 40 miles from anything, and a spurting wound. We applied a Quick Clot sponge, and he's still with us. One and a half hours later we got him to the ER. The doctor said it absolutely saved his life. I still have my Dad because of this product. I can't imagine a better outcome, because of Quick Clot.

Quick clot is a natural enzyme that starts the blod clotting process in the body. Our bodies have small amounts of it that are there naturally, except for hemophiliacs. Quick clot is simply concentrated to a high level like vitamin supplements.

The US Army & Marines have chosen quick clot to stop battlefield bleeding and loss of blood volume and pressure. If it's good enough for the government, and been extensively tested by them then its ready to go for me. It's a natural product that does the job without nasty chemicals.

You should also have a roll of gauze to go with the quick clot to hold it in place. Pressure is an important part of stopping bleeding but all you get in the package is a 5x5" square that is embedded with crystals of the quick clot agent - once they get bloody and wet they go to work right away promoting clotting. You need gause to hold the quick clot in place over the wound especially during the first 10 minutes (the clot will form in 5 minutes based on medical testing on the femeral artery being sliced open to insert a port to run a catheter up to the heart. The quick clot is put over the hole in the artery and held in place for 5 minutes, then removed with a nice clot formed over the artery. Keep in mind the arteries have the higher pressure and are harder to stop bleeding because they are high pressure blood vessels.

Finally, it's been shown that an individual can apply and secure a quick clot bandage by themselves, effectively self-treating a major blead without outside help. That's impressive, and that's why the quick clot and the gause roll are the first two items in my medical kit when I am out in no mands land.

It comes in 25g and 50g sizes, the 50g is a better deal and bigger. Get this one.

I have to be honest, I had never heard of QuikClot before....well, that is until last summer when a buddy of mine did a serious wipe on his bike at Slickrock. I am not sure what happened as I didn't personally see it as he was in back of me however I did hear it and it sounded bad. When I got to him he seemed to be ok, except for a big gash on his left leg. It was like 3 inches long and it was pretty deep. To say it was bleeding profusely would be an understatement. Within just 45 or so seconds he had a large pool of blood forming under his leg. I went for my first aid kit and he immediately asked me if I had any QuikClot. I told him I didn't and that I had never heard of it. He said to grab his first aid kit instead, which I did. Sure enough I opened it up and there was the bag of QuickClot. I opened it, handed it to him and he immediately applied it to his leg. By the time we had his leg wrapped and bandaged up the bleeding had already significantly slowed. I was absolutely blown away and had never seen anything like it. My friend then told me that he had been introduced to it in a similar way and now considers it a vital component to his first aid kit. Needless to say I have since made it a vital component for my first aid kit. It really has to be seen to be believed. Its hands down one of the best things you can have in an emergency first aid kit. Things like this can literally save lives and you dont have to have clotting problems to be able to benefit from a product like this.

Do yourself a favor and immediately add a package of QuikClot to your first aid kit. It like magic in a bag in regards to stopping bleeding. Its nothing short of ingenious and again should be mandatory in all first aid kits.

5 Stars!!!