How to Stop Bleeding in the Wild

One of my favorite activities is to walk the woods.

I especially like to explore off the trail. I have some rock climbing experience, so I can be more daring than some people I know.

But those rocks can be sharp and all it would take is one slip to cause a traumatic enough wound for me to bleed to death without expeditious care.

May is Stop the Bleed Month.

Even outside the wild, traumatic bleeding injuries are one of the highest causes of death in the United States.

Hemorraghing, or bleeding profusely, can cause someone to bleed to death in minutes.

EMTs can’t get to you within minutes if you’re miles into the wilderness.

Do you know how to stop traumatic bleeding by yourself?

Types of Bleeding

All major hemorrhages are dangerous, but some are lethal more quickly than others.

Traumatic wounds will be either arterial or venous. You want to stop it in both cases but some techniques won’t work with the wrong type of bleeding.

First Steps

Once a traumatic event has happened and you see blood spurting all over the place, it’s time to act.

First of all, sit the victim down, whether it’s you or someone else. Blood loss can cause weakness and fainting, so you don’t want them to fall over and hit their head.

Then, talk.

Explain what you’re seeing and what you’re about to do. This will build up trust and provide comfort to the patient (even yourself!).

But don’t slow down the actual first-aid in order to comfort the victim.

Get out your medical gear. Then, get yourself sanitized if possible.

This means putting on rubber gloves or using hand sanitizer, if possible.

If that would slow you down, though, proceed immediately to stopping the bleeding. Stopping the bleeding is more important than preventing infection.

Ways to Stop Bleeding

A serious wound can cause death by exsanguination in minutes, whether arterial or venous.

This means that objective #1 is to stop the bleeding, by all means.

The following text, images, and videos are great resources to learn how to stop the bleed. But they are no replacement for hands-on experience.

So, I encourage you to take a course on bleeding control.

Until then, here’s what you can do to stop bleeding:

Apply Direct Pressure

The most effective and safest way to slow bleeding is to apply direct pressure on the wound.

This cuts off the blood vessels and gives you time to dress the wound.

Hand pressure is recommended, especially when holding gauze or cloth. However, this may not be possible if you’re alone in the woods.

In this case, use something else to apply pressure.

Your knee can be surprisingly useful for applying pressure. You can also hold the limb against another part of your body, especially if you are able to jam the far side against a rock, tree, or the ground. so you can put your body weight against the wound.

Slowing the blood flow this way will give the blood more time to clot before you bleed to death!

Use Digital Ligation

Sometimes, direct pressure outside the wound is not enough and you need to reach into the wound with your fingers to apply pressure directly to the blood vessels.

This is called digital ligation.

It’s best done when you have multiple sets of hands as removing the fingers can cause the blood to flow again.

Block Pressure Points

If you can’t stop the blood flow directly, then look up the body.

Pressure points are areas on the body where the blood vessels are close to the surface. If you know how to take a pulse, then you know several pressure points.

Apply pressure to these places to slow down blood flow and increase clotting, IF it’s an arterial bleed.

If you’re alone, lash a stick to a pressure point.

If the wound is on part of the body supplied by several arteries then these pressure points are less helpful.

Pressure points include:

• Temples
• The sides of your neck
• Above the clavicles
• Inside your upper arm
• Crook of your elbow
• Wrist
• Groin
• Inside your knee
• Ankle

If your head is bleeding then don’t hold down both pressure points! You still need blood flow to your brain!

Apply a Tourniquet

Tourniquets can be a touchy subject and many people say they are harmful and will kill your limbs in hours.

Due to battlefield research, we know that tourniquets are both more efficacious and less dangerous than previously thought.

You still don’t want to wear a tourniquet for more six hours, but if the choice is between exsanguination or amputation, trade your limb for your life.

Use tourniquets under two circumstances:

1. When you can’t stop arterial bleeding using other methods
2. If you don’t have time to stop the bleeding before you need to move, such as during combat, a flood, or another time-sensitive emergency

I’d recommend the C.A.T. Gen 7 tourniquet. It’s tested in combat and easily applied with one hand.

You can also craft your own TQ in the woods, which I’ll cover later.

To use a tourniquet, position it on the limb between the wound in your heart, close the loop so you are unable to get three fingertips underneath the tourniquet, then twist the windlass until the bleeding has stopped.

If it hurts more than the wound, congratulations! You’ve done it right.

There are two schools of thought as to where to place the tourniquet:

• Shortly above the wound
• High and tight

Let’s look at those in detail:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vbwD9yWUs4

Record the Application Time

The medical professionals will need to know how long the tourniquet has been on.

So, take a sharpie, and write the application time on the victim’s face, along with a large T.

If the victim has lots of hair then write the time on the neck or anywhere else that is conspicuous.

Releasing the Tourniquet

Older wisdom held that tourniquets should be released every 15 minutes or so for one minute to keep blood flowing to the extremity, preventing cellular death.

We now know that your limb can survive without blood for up to 6 hours.

Releasing the tourniquet will cause more bleeding and can damage the TQ and make it lose efficacy.

So, if you can make it to help before six hours, it’s safer to leave the tourniquet on.

It may even be safer to leave it on for longer because, again, it’s better to lose a limb than lose your life.

Pack the Wound

If the bleeding won’t respond to direct pressure and a tourniquet can’t be used, such as a deep torso wound, pack the wound and apply a pressure dressing.

Fill the wound with sterile gauze (or an alternative, see Field Expedient Medical Supplies below) and hold it tightly in place with a bandage if possible.

Make sure that the packing material pushes up against the blood vessels!

The idea is to apply pressure (sort of like digital ligation) to slow the bleeding and hold blood against the vessels so they can more easily clot. You can’t do this if the wound is loosely packed!

If you don’t have any medical bandages then wrap and tie a strip of clothing or a bandana over the dressing.

Don’t replace bloody dressing! Apply more as it gets soaked through or you’ll interrupt the clotting process.

Wound Dressing

Now that the wound isn’t bleeding as much, it’s time to do what you can to prevent infection, prevent further damage, and even hasten the healing process.

Clean the Wound

The wild is a dirty place, filled with bacteria and other little critters that see your exposed flesh as the perfect place to live.

Infections are no joke, so if it’s possible, clean your wound.

The easiest way to do this is to flush the wound with safe water. This is called irrigation.

Pressurized sterile saline water is best, but that’s in short supply in the woods.

Boiled then cooled water can also be used. Also, filtered water.

Don’t wash a wound directly with “raw” water, even if it’s from a clear, moving river. That water will still have contaminants.

Do not use iodine or hydrogen peroxide unless absolutely necessary. They can irritate the exposed flesh and cause further damage.

Protect the Wound

Once you’ve slowed or stopped the bleeding and have cleaned the wound, if possible, it’s time to protect it from further harm.

Apply antibiotic cream, if you have any.

Then cover it with a clean bandage or sterilized cloth.

If the wound does get infected, there are still steps you can take to survive. You can find those here.

Close the Wound

If you’ve experienced a cut that didn’t tear out a chunk of your skin then you may be able to close the wound.

This will maximize healing and minimize scarring, but only do it if you can bring the separated pieces of skin and underlying flesh together without stretching.

If you can, use medical tape to close the cut.

Use two pieces, one on either side. Grasp them both and pull them to the opposite side so they pull the cut shut.

Duct tape can also be used for this.

As a last resort, you can super glue the cut shut.

Never do this to a dirty wound because it traps bacteria inside. It also won’t work for long if your cut is over a joint or other often-flexed body part.

Watch for Shock

Finally, a large amount of blood loss can cause shock.

This is called hypovolemic shock and happens when your body loses a fifth of its blood supply.

Watch out for these symptoms:

• Headache
• Fatigue
• Nausea
• Sweating
• Dizziness
• Cold, clammy, or pale skin
• Hyperventilation
• Rapid heart rate
• Confusion
• Blue lips or fingernails
• Unconsciousness

If you notice these symptoms, then do these three things:

1. Keep the patient warm
2. Raise the patient’s feet above the heart (if conscious) or turn the patient on their side (if unconscious)
3. Replace fluids, if conscious

Water high in electrolytes is preferred but any potable water is better than none. Just don’t force liquid down an unconscious person’s throat!

How to Sterilize Medical Supplies in the Wild

The woods aren’t great at keeping your medical gear sterile.

So, what do you do when you need to dress your wound but don’t have another packet of sterile gauze?

You can use heat or alcohol.

Boil what you need to sterilize for several minutes to kill all the bad stuff.

If it won’t survive boiling then you can hold it close to a fire. Get it as close as possible without catching it on fire.

Failing that, immerse the object in alcohol. It needs to be at least 40% ABV, preferably higher.

Whiskey is acceptable, though something like gin or absinthe would be better because of the antiseptic herbs used as flavoring.

However, keep in mind that exsanguination kills in minutes while infections kill in days and are easily fought with antibiotics. If the choice is between using unsanitary medical supplies or saving a life, save the life!

Field Expedient Supplies

Yeah, yeah, all of this knowledge is well and good, but what if you don’t have sterile gauze or a C.A.T. tourniquet with you?

Here are some medical supplies you can craft or even find in the wild.

Tourniquets

You can make a tourniquet yourself.

A rope is good, as is a bandana or torn piece of clothing. Tie it into a square knot!

Then, stick a branch under the expedient tourniquet.

Spin it around and it will pull the rope or cloth and tighten the tourniquet.

Once it’s tight enough, lash it to your body to hold it in place.

Sphagnum Moss

Sphagnum moss has been used through the ages as a safe and effective wound dressing.

It’s very absorbent, so it holds plenty of blood. More than cotton, in fact, if you start with dried moss.

Sphagnum moss also has antibacterial properties!

That’s part of why some sphagnum mosses form bogs and peat.

This moss doesn’t like to grow in nasty areas. You can harvest it, remove all debris squeeze it by hand (gently!) to dry it out somewhat, then use it to pack your wound.

If you can let it air dry completely, all the better. Then it’ll be able to absorb even more blood.

Just make sure to positively identify sphagnum moss. Not all mosses can be used as wound dressing!

Also, dried sphagnum moss can be used as tinder for firestarting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMwadiZYb-E

Herbal Poultice

Some herbs have properties which can help staunch a wound.

Astringent herbs, such as yarrow and witch hazel, help your body close up and stop the bleeding.

Other herbs are antibacterial or antiseptic, such as garlic, sage, wormwood, and more.

You can make an herbal poultice by making a strong “tea” using the herbs, soaking a bandage in that tea, then applying it to the wound.

Modern medications are more powerful, but Neosporin doesn’t grow wild.

Honey

Honey has also historically been used to protect and heal wounds. It’s used to this day, in fact!

Honey is antibacterial, has a pH which promotes healing, reduces swelling, and acts as a physical barrier to contaminants.

Apply honey to the dressing and then put that on the wound.

Manuka honey is best, followed by medical-grade honey.

You can smoke out a honeybee hive and take some honey for yourself if you absolutely need to, though.

Conclusion

If you’ve suffered a major wound in the wild, you need to do three things in this order:

1. Stop the bleeding
2. Dress the wound
3. Protect against shock

Of these, the first step is the most important. You don’t want to exsanguinate and die.

However, don’t neglect caring for the wound and for the victim. Infection or shock can cause death even after the bleeding is under control.

However, with the knowledge you’ve gained from this article, you now know how to respond swiftly to a traumatic incident in the wild.

I’d still recommend finding a class and getting some hands-on experience. Practice applying a tourniquet to yourself with one hand, and know how to apply a wound dressing.

That way, if something unthinkable does happen, you just may save a life.

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