Severe Bleeding
Life-threatening — act now
Blood spurting, pooling, soaking through clothing, or leaving a wet trail means minutes matter. You do not need gloves to start pressure — bare hands are better than waiting. Send someone to call emergency services the moment bleeding is clearly severe.
At a glance
- Firm, constant pressure — stacked cloth, full weight, both hands if needed.
- Add fresh cloth on top when blood soaks through; never lift to peek.
- Ten minutes minimum without releasing pressure.
- Pack deep pocket wounds (groin, armpit, neck base), then press on top.
- Tourniquet 5–7 cm (2–3 in) above the wound, never on a joint — write down the time.
The order of steps
- Expose the wound. Cut or tear clothing away so you can see where blood is coming from.
- Press hard. Stack cloth or gauze directly on the wound and push down with your full weight. Firm, constant, both hands if needed.
- Add, never subtract. If blood soaks through, put fresh cloth on top and keep pressing. Lifting to peek restarts clotting from zero.
- Keep pressing until relieved. Ten full minutes minimum without releasing. If someone else takes over, they press on top of your hands — no gaps.
If blood keeps pouring
Deep pocket wounds (groin, armpit, neck base)
Stuff the wound itself with clean gauze or cloth, then press hard on top of it. Packing plus pressure controls these wounds; surface pressure alone does not reach the source.
Limb bleeding that pressure cannot stop
A tourniquet goes 5–7 cm (2–3 inches) above the wound — never on a joint. Tighten until the bleeding stops; it will hurt badly, and that is expected. Write down the time it went on. Once tightened, do not loosen it until professional help takes over.
Improvised tourniquets
A commercial tourniquet is far more reliable than a belt or strip of cloth twisted with a stick. Improvise only for life-threatening limb bleeding when nothing else has stopped it — wide material (at least 5 cm), twisted tight with a rigid stick, secured so it cannot unwind.
After the bleeding stops
- Keep firm dressing in place and leave it there.
- Lay the person down, keep them warm with blankets — shock kills quietly.
- No food or drink in case surgery follows.
- Watch for confusion, pale clammy skin, fast weak pulse: treat as urgent even if bleeding looks controlled.
Get professional help for any of these
Bleeding you cannot control · wound from a gunshot or impaled object · person faints, turns gray, or stops responding · object stuck in the wound (pack around it — never pull it out).
Practice before you need it
Once a year, talk through this page with your household and locate every piece of kit involved: where gloves live, where the biggest pads are, which commercial tourniquet (if any) is stocked. Under real stress you will fall back on whatever you rehearsed.
Grounded in public-domain Stop the Bleed / FEMA / military first aid guidance. Educational only — hands-on training is the real preparation.