U.S. special forces test new battlefield bandage
By Kris Osborn
CNN Headline News
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American Red Cross anti-bleeding foam and fibrin bandage material.
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(CNN) -- Officials at Special Operations Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida tell CNN that U.S. forces are training with a new battlefield bandage that can stop bleeding in two minutes.
Col. David L. Hammer, a medical doctor and command surgeon for U.S. Special Operations Command, said U.S. forces are training with the new bandage in the region under U.S. Central Command control, which includes the Persian Gulf.
The Fibrin bandage uses hemostatic products designed to slow and/or stop bleeding that results from battle injuries.
"The bandage has blood-clotting factors impregnated into the dressing," Hammer said.
The bandage was inspired in part by the U.S. military experience in Somalia in 1993, when 18 Army Rangers were killed while trying to capture the warlord Gen. Mohamed Farrah Aidid, Hammer said.
During the firefights in Somalia, Hammer said, several U.S. soldiers died from rapid and severe blood loss. Hammer said Army Col. John Holcomb, a doctor and veteran of the Somalia mission, provided inspiration for the Fibrin bandage.
"Because of the experience there, we started looking for solutions to the problem," Hammer said, adding that he believes the bandage could have saved at least one of the men who died in Mogadishu.
The bandage is key to stopping preventable deaths, Hammer said. If an injured person on a battlefield loses 100 milliliters of blood a minute, equal to about three shot glasses, they can die within an hour if the blood flow is not stopped.
"We work in small units and travel in remote locations. We operate very far forward of conventional units and often in hostile territory, so we need things that will work in that environment," Hammer said.
The bandage is particularly helpful for injuries to parts of the body that are likely to bleed more than others, such as the groin and the neck.
"[Special Operations forces] are national treasures," said Hammer, who added, "There is a philosophy in our command which is that humans are more important than hardware. It takes so long to make one of these special operators that our command is committed to the best in research in order to keep them alive."
Hammer said Special Operations forces returning from Afghanistan met with "scientists to find out what works and what does not" in terms of treating battlefield injuries.
Also, Hammer said, the U.S. military is working on an advanced tourniquet with a nylon strapped material. The advantage of the newer tourniquet would be that one needs only one hand to put in it on, so a soldier who was injured could potentially put it on him or herself. About the tourniquet, Hammer said, "One of our Delta 18 medics invented it."
