NAPD officers use special tourniquets to save two lives

See TV99 video about use of special tourniquets by NAPD officers:  https://vimeo.com/206274503

New Albany  police officers Joe Keaton and Steven Nolan have used special tourniquets to help save two lives in New Albany within recent months.

In both instances they used special “one-handed” tourniquet devices to stop bleeding in individuals who might otherwise have died.

The special tourniquets, and training in using them, was provided to the New Albany Police Department (NAPD) and to  many other area police departments by North Mississippi Trauma System, Inc. with funding from the State Board of Health.

Left to right are New Albany Police Officer Steven Nolan, Chief Chris Robertson, Officer Joe Keaton and Donna Grisham with North MS Trauma Systems, Inc.

In the first incident, in October 2016, NAPD Officer Joe Keaton responded a call at the Rest Haven Trailer Park. Officer Nolan arrived a short while later. Keaton and Nolan found an intoxicated individual, who appeared to have attempted suicide. Keaton said the man had cut his forearm with a box cutter, severing an artery; Keaton stopped the bleeding with the tourniquet. The man was transported to a hospital and survived.

In another incident last week, Officers Keaton and Nolan responded to a call reporting an assault in New Albany. They found that a man had punched his fist through a window, and his wrist was cut by the glass. Again the tourniquet was applied and the injured man lived.

The tourniquet used in both instances is one especially designed to be used with only one hand. Its primary intended use was for police officers who might have been shot or otherwise injured and are able to use only one hand to apply a tourniquet.

“Wounded police officers would have a much better chance of survival if they were able to provide immediate first aid for themselves,” said New Albany Police Chief Chris Roberson. “Basic trauma, in a nutshell, is you plug the hole and stop the bleeding.” Robertson said he was grateful for the “one-handed” tourniquets, which can be used to save the lives of police officers and, as in the above two instances, the lives of other victims.

In February 2016, the Mississippi Trauma Advisory Committee and the State Board of Health allocated funding to provide sworn law enforcement officers with the tourniquets and training in their use.

In June 2016, Donna Grisham, region administrator for North MS Trauma Systems, Inc., trained NAPD officers in how to use the tourniquets to control life-threatening bleeding, and how to pack wounds. The program provided 26 of the tourniquet kits, which usually cost $40 each, to the NAPD at no cost.