Wolf Wilds › First Aid

Photo KingaNBM, CC BY-SA 4.0

Stopping bad bleeding

What you do in the first two minutes when the blood will not stop.

What you need

How

  1. Push hard on the wound with the heel of your hand and keep pushing. Pressure stops most bleeding.
  2. Pack a deep wound tight with gauze or clean cloth, right down into the hole, then press again for ten minutes by the clock.
  3. If it is an arm or a leg and the blood is pumping, get a tourniquet on it, high and tight, two to three inches above the wound and never over a joint.
  4. Twist the windlass until the bleeding stops, then lock it. It will hurt. That is the trade.
  5. Write the time on the tourniquet or on the person, and do not loosen it.
  6. Keep them warm and flat and start moving toward help.

Watch for

Danger
  • Blood soaking through means the pressure is in the wrong place or is not hard enough. Pack tighter instead of piling more cloth on top.
  • Cold and shock kill people who stopped bleeding an hour ago. Wrap them, including under them.

Notes

A tourniquet on a limb buys hours, not minutes. Practice putting one on one handed, on yourself, before the day you need it.

tourniquetpressuretrauma

Updated 2026-09-04

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