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You will not hear this anywhere but here.

Tobacco will slow or stop bleeding. Supposedly the nicotine constricts blood vessels. I know from experience that if I don’t have a cup of coffee first, I usually shave myself while cutting. I put a little tobacco on the cuts and the bleeding usually stops almost instantly.

I wonder if a cigar might do what that sponge device is supposed to do if you have nothing else? If some tobacco were left in, I don’t think it would be as bad as a sponge, I imagine the body would just absorb it.

I am a virtual cornucopia of useless information.

The ONLY CURE for a GSW is a Surgeon. You can stuff things into a gun wound all day long and it will probably not stop an arterial bleed. Bullets fragment and go all different directions. You really don't know where the bleed(s) is or even IF there is a bleed. The bleeding that you can see (in a GSW) is not nearly as concerning as the bleeding you can't see.

Assuming an artery or bone is hit, yes, you need significant medical attention, and it might not be immediately obvious whether or not either has been hit. However, once it's been determined that nothing major was hit, yes, you can "heal" a GSW by stuffing things into it; that's actually what they recommend.

Specifically, packing the wound with clean, sterile gauze-type stuff, to soak up any gross stuff and keep the surface wound open, so the wound channel can drain while it heals from the bottom up, instead of skin down. This is basic wound care, and you don't need a doctor, or even an RN, to do it.

I have no idea if the tobacco thing would work, and I'm not really anxious for an opportunity to test it out.

I don't see any "heal" in that device. To me healing implies that the wound has closed all the way up, scarred over, and doesn't hurt anymore.

OTOH, my great-grandmammy taught me that you had to chew the terbaccy fust afore you stuffed up the musket ball hole.

VoiceofReason wrote:You will not hear this anywhere but here.

Tobacco will slow or stop bleeding. Supposedly the nicotine constricts blood vessels. I know from experience that if I don’t have a cup of coffee first, I usually shave myself while cutting. I put a little tobacco on the cuts and the bleeding usually stops almost instantly.

Afrin nasal spray [or equivalent] works pretty good. It also has an ingredient that constricts blood vessels.

My grandfather used to take chaw with him for wound treatment & poultices when he went hunting & fishing in the Atchafalaya Basin in the 70s. None of that stuff was a long term cure, just a temporary treatment to hold you over of the day or two that it took to get to a hospital or Dr.

Sounds like a fancy tampon.

TexasCajun wrote:My grandfather used to take chaw with him for wound treatment & poultices when he went hunting & fishing in the Atchafalaya Basin in the 70s. None of that stuff was a long term cure, just a temporary treatment to hold you over of the day or two that it took to get to a hospital or Dr.

Tobacco spit works great to relieve the pain of a briar needle in the leg.

JSThane wrote:Assuming an artery or bone is hit, yes, you need significant medical attention, and it might not be immediately obvious whether or not either has been hit. However, once it's been determined that nothing major was hit, yes, you can "heal" a GSW by stuffing things into it; that's actually what they recommend.

Specifically, packing the wound with clean, sterile gauze-type stuff, to soak up any gross stuff and keep the surface wound open, so the wound channel can drain while it heals from the bottom up, instead of skin down. This is basic wound care, and you don't need a doctor, or even an RN, to do it.

I have no idea if the tobacco thing would work, and I'm not really anxious for an opportunity to test it out.

The only problem with that is your first indication of a major bleed is when the blood pressure goes south. There is really no way in the field, short an echo or xray machine, to tell how much damage or where the real damage is. Life Flight does carry a sort of blood product but EMS crews do not. We can start an IV and keep the blood pressure up for a while but saline water does not do what blood does and all we eventually end up doing is turning blood into koolaid. Anything that is packed into the wound will have to be removed by the ER staff. Use a good trauma dressing, care for a sucking chest wound, maybe a tourniquet, and get to a trauma center.

I tried to chew tobacco one time and I thought I was going to die. If that is the solution then I am sorry...you are going to bleed.

The tobacco thing was not meant to “heal” the wound. It was meant to be “first aid” to keep the person from bleeding out until the paramedics arrive, and the person can be transported to a hospital.

BTW. I forgot to mention it stings a little when first applied. It also helps to moisten the tobacco slightly with a little water etc.

The original article at Popular Science is much better: http://www.popsci.com/article/technolog ... 15-seconds" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. That article at betabeat was terrible.

Pretty clever.

I had a round in my knee. The ER DR thought he could put a magnet up to my knee and it would come out... I knew I was in trouble then.

VoiceofReason wrote:The tobacco thing was not meant to “heal” the wound. It was meant to be “first aid” to keep the person from bleeding out until the paramedics arrive, and the person can be transported to a hospital.

BTW. I forgot to mention it stings a little when first applied. It also helps to moisten the tobacco slightly with a little water etc.

I should mention that nicotine is extremely toxic, so I wouldn't use tobacco for a large wound. One cigar contains enough nicotine to kill a person.