April 23, 2018 – Beware Fakes

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Anchor lead: Stop the Bleed kits have imitators, Elizabeth Tracey reports

Stop the Bleed is the name of a national campaign to raise awareness and provide training and kits so people who witness traumatic bleeding can step in. Matthew Levy, an emergency medicine expert at Johns Hopkins and campaign spokesperson, says if you’re thinking of obtaining a kit for your location, be careful.

Levy: Someone might say well these bleeding control kits I’d love to buy one but they’re expensive and they cost between fifty and a hundred dollars depending on what the specific contents are, but there are some counterfeit ones on the market that people need to be aware of. There are some counterfeit tourniquets in particularly that are functionally knock off products. I would caution everyone that a tourniquet that is meant to control severe arterial hemorrhage is going to cost in the $20-30 range so if you’re buying it for five or ten dollars you’re probably not getting the real deal       :30

Kits are available directly from BleedingControl.org that also contain just in time instructions to staunch bleeding and other materials. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.