Effective way to slow bleeding

srgalactica

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My MC is unconscious and is laying on her back. Her pinky finger has been severed. Which of these two options would be more effective at slowing the bleeding until the MC can get medical attention. This isn't a modern setting, btw.

Option A - Keeping the MC's hand submerged in cold water
Option B - Keeping the arm elevated above the heart

Thanks!
 

benbenberi

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I'd probably vote for Option C - Applying direct pressure.
 

Drachen Jager

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Apply direct pressure. Put a tourniquet on as close above the injury as you can manage if there is still too much bleeding (though that's unlikely with a pinky).

Elevating it does help, but not as much as pressure.

Of course the fastest way to stop the bleeding is to simply kill her. ;)
 

jclarkdawe

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How about choice D -- none of the above.

She's unconscious. I'd be worried about airway, breathing, circulation. Bleeding pinkie, even if sliced off, isn't likely to leak enough blood before it clots to make a difference. I'd be worried about what made her unconscious and what I could do to revive her.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe
 

melindamusil

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Last weekend I read that pepper is an effective way to stop bleeding, and a somewhat common treatment prior to "modern medicine".
 

Orianna2000

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In first aid class, they taught us to elevate and apply pressure. There was a third action, possibly ice, but I don't remember, it's been a couple of decades. There's also the need to prevent shock, which can kill. Keep her warm and elevate her legs.

You can Google first aid treatments, as well, for further advice. Try "stop bleeding first aid" or "emergency first aid."
 

kevinwaynewilliams

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How long ago is "not a modern setting"? The issue isn't what's best, it's what would be correct for the period.
 

asroc

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How about choice D -- none of the above.

She's unconscious. I'd be worried about airway, breathing, circulation. Bleeding pinkie, even if sliced off, isn't likely to leak enough blood before it clots to make a difference. I'd be worried about what made her unconscious and what I could do to revive her.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe

What the squirrel said. A severed pinkie sucks, but loss of consciousness is potentially a much bigger problem. Worry about that first.

As for how to treat an amputated finger, first, direct pressure, second, elevation above the level of the heart (this is supplementary. It's not going to stop the hemorrhage by itself). In most cases that's enough and unless this person is a hemophiliac it ought to do the trick in this scenario. If not, you can move on to pressure points, splinting and tourniquets, if you know what you're doing. It shouldn't come to that in this scenario, though.

No ice. Ice destroys tissue.
 

chickenma

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My stepmom got her thumb caught in a mooring line. It came right off. She said, "My thumb just came off," carried it in the house, too mangled to re-attach. There wasn't much blood. She just elevated her hand and applied pressure, then sat down before she fainted.
 

chickenma

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On another, more fantastical note, a friend told a story of his past life as an Afghan horseman whose leg had to be amputated at the knee. He applied hot wax.
 

MttStrn

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You can use charred human hair or ashes as well.
 

kevinwaynewilliams

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It's a fantasy novel. So, I can't really say how long ago. Basically, stitches, are possible, as is cauterizing.

Then it depends on the effect you want. In terms of increasing trauma, you have

  1. Elevate and wait
  2. Wrap a strip of torn clothing around it for compression
  3. Heat a knife or sword in a fire to cauterize it
  4. Dragon's breath
I think your choice should be based on dramatic effect, not effectiveness.
 

Alexia Stark

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Not sure if it'll help in a fantasy world, but I recently met an ex-military guy who kept a several small containers of powder in his med pack called styptic powder.

(We carry emergency packs on hikes 'cause you never know.)

He said they used something almost exactly like it in the military when someone got injured. Basically you put the powder on and it absorbs the blood and creates a thick crust like an instant scab and stops bleeding in a flash.

Best of luck!
 

GeorgeK

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My stepmom got her thumb caught in a mooring line. It came right off. She said, "My thumb just came off," carried it in the house, too mangled to re-attach. There wasn't much blood. She just elevated her hand and applied pressure, then sat down before she fainted.
Crush injuries like that have a much better likelihood of clotting than sharp amputations. Crush injuries release more clotting messengers, to put it simply.

One can certainly bleed to death from a finger wound but thankfully being a relatively small area it's relatively easy to either on your own or have another person apply pressure.
 

Hendo

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How about choice D -- none of the above.

She's unconscious. I'd be worried about airway, breathing, circulation. Bleeding pinkie, even if sliced off, isn't likely to leak enough blood before it clots to make a difference. I'd be worried about what made her unconscious and what I could do to revive her.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe

This was my thought. Unconscious and on her back is never a good thing. The pinky finger would be low on the priority list. Now maybe if it was a slit wrist or something like that...
 
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Russ Mars

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Not sure if it'll help in a fantasy world, but I recently met an ex-military guy who kept a several small containers of powder in his med pack called styptic powder.
I just thought I'd mention that styptic pencils are quite common and have been around a long time, often used in the home to stem bleeding from minor cuts, especially from shaving.
 

WeaselFire

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Cauterize it. Propane torch works well. :)

Standard treatment for a severed digit is to pack the digit in gauze and/or ice, pack the hand in gauze and get the victim to the hospital.

Jeff
 

Canotila

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For what it's worth, one time I stapled my index and middle finger together with a tabletop stapler. It didn't even hurt, but as soon as I glanced down and saw it, I passed out.

So loss of consciousness following an injury isn't always life threatening. If whoever is treating her has any basic medical training, they'll make sure she's breathing and stuff before treating the pinky though.
 

Anaximander

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Red Cross First Response medic here. This is what I'd do on finding someone lying unconscious, on their back, with a severed finger. Some of this doesn't apply to a fantasy setting, but I'll leave it in; it might be helpful to you or someone else reading this.

First up, DR ABC. Standard practice.

D: Danger. What caused this? Wild animal? Machinery? Sliding door? Is it something that might get me too? If so, sorry but I can't take the risk. If it's gone or been made safe, then I can help. If it's something I can mitigate or make safe without risking my own safety too much, then I do that, then start helping.

R: Response. See if she reacts to loud speech, then a shake, then sharper stimulus (squeezing the earlobe is a good one; hurts enough to wake up a groggy casualty, but no chance of actual injury). She's unconscious, so nothing here. Don't waste time; it's better they wake up while you're treating them than they die while you're yelling at them to wake up. If the pain stimulus doesn't do it, move on.

A: Airways. Nothing over the face, nothing in the mouth or nose, nothing blocking the throat. If appropriate, the recovery position will help keep the airways clear once checked, but before that, we have other things to deal with.

B: Breathing. Now we know there's nothing stopping the airflow, check for the rise and fall of the chest, see if you can hear or feel breath from the nose and mouth. To do all three at once: ear by their nose, cheek by the mouth, eyes looking down to watch the chest. You haven't mentioned that she's not breathing, so I'll assume she is.

C: Circulation. Not really much point checking thisonce we know they're breathing because if they're breathing they'll tend to have a pulse as well. At any rate, she's bleeding from a severed finger, so we can see that.

At this point, we're probably satisfied that she's not going to die in the next few moments, so we take a second to check for other injuries. We're looking particularly for head injuries here; anything that might have caused the unconsciousness that we need to worry about. Also worth checking for are signs of electric shock (burns, stiffness, nearby electrical equipment), poisoning (foam or residue in the mouth, odd-coloured skin, bleeding from mucous membranes like gums, signs of vomiting) and suffocation (strangulation marks, burst blood vessels in eyes). In the absence of all of those, I'd look at how much blood she's lost from the severed finger and decide whether it's enough to cause her to pass out. The volume of lost blood doesn't actually change what I'd do, but it's worth knowing, and the paramedics will need to know. If the blood loss is low, then I'd probably conclude that she fainted at the pain or shock of the injury.

Now we might want to put her in the recovery position. Things to consider here are whether there's any chance of spinal injury, and whether the position will interfere with access to things we need to treat. No problems with either, so recovery position it is. Wounded hand out, non-wounded hand to opposite cheek, wounded-hand-side knee up, and roll towards wounded hand. Non-wounded hand should now be between face and floor; wounded hand should be out in front of her.

Now we've dealt with the unconsciousness, we look to the wound. Severed finger. That's going to bleed and look scary, but it's not as bad as it looks. No massive arteries or anything, and on an easily-moved body part. So, as with anything that's bleeding more than we'd like, the first thing is to grab hold, find a comfortable way to grip that we can hold for a while without cramping, and clamp down. We're looking to squeeze the edges of the wound together if possible, and just press down hard over it if not. Next, we try to elevate it above the heart. It's on the end of her arm, so that's easy enough. Leaving her in the recovery position, we can pick the hand up so the forearm points straight up. It's not very far above the heart, but it's just a finger, so I'm not too worried. If it was the whole hand I'd probably lay her the other way over, wounded arm up, move the underside arm under her face (or use a handkerchief or folded jacket) and elevate the whole arm.

Now, if you have something cold and relatively clean, we might want to cool the wound - and, if we can find it, the finger. Ice works nicely, but wrap it first or you risk damaging it. Any fabric that won't shed bits will work for wrapping; I'm never without a cotton handkerchief, so I'd use that. Either I reach for the finger, or get someone else to do it - keep in mind we don't want to let go of the bleeding hand - and then we wrap it neatly and nestle it in an ice bucket or something. Likewise, ice wrapped in a clean cloth of some kind can be pressed to the wound, provided we can find a way of doing that without letting it bleed too much. Happily, a wound like this will clot before too long, so the bleeding should slow. The main aim here is to reduce swelling and tissue death to make for an easy reattachment, or at least to give them more viable tissue to work with when they close off the stump.

If she comes round at any point, my main worry would be shock - from pain, from surprise, and from blood loss. Keep her warm, don't let her get up or move around (not likely while I got my hand clamped over hers) and keep an eye on her for signs of her passing out again (not because there's much you can do about it, but because you'll want to know whether she's conscious at any given point). A warm and/or sugary drink can help too, although in this case I probably wouldn't do that because she'll need surgery for the finger and it's better if she goes nil by mouth before that.
 
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