On my way home from a range trip this past Labor Day, I was involuntarily challenged in a competition, probably the most important competition I've ever been in in my entire life to date... the time chose me.
The whole story:
I was sitting at a stop light, headed north. A truck was turning left, to head south, from the east bound lanes. A motorcycle was coming from the west. The two met violently somewhere in the middle, which sent the rider and bike "through" my lane, immediately in front of my car, in the air several feet above ground. The rider came to rest on the sidewalk corner, the bike even with my passenger door. I took a few seconds (seems like too long when I try to remember it) to figure out what I just witnessed and what I needed to do. I could hear the rider moaning, so knew he was still alive, but he had not moved from where he landed. I got 911 on the phone (damn call stayed with my car, as I hadn't even shut it off), and got them a location and had them get EMS moving. By this time, 3 other bystanders were there (plus the driver of the truck that was involved, who I didn't even give thought to...he may have been in shock too, but was unharmed). I asked if anyone had any medical or First Aid training, and no one did. All me I guess... I handed the 911 call off to one of the other bystanders, and got another one to talk to the victim and try to keep him still, and I began to assess. I, along with a female bystander (said her husband was a doc) noticed a very significant loss of blood from the lower left leg. By a minute or so after the collision, blood had begun to pool on the cement, soaking through the victims jeans. I decided to get a tourniquet on his leg. As I got my Dark Angel kit from the passenger seat of my car, the rider moved a little, and the woman helping assess said she noticed spurting of blood, so by that time I was 100% convinced a tourniquet was necessary since EMS was not on scene yet. Got the tourniquet in place, only about mid thigh. Thinking back, I could have gotten it higher wiggling it around back and forth underneath him, but he was laying on his left side and I had to push my hands under his leg to get the other end of the tq as it was, and I was afraid to move him or push his weight around too much in getting it secure. I secured it and tightened the fuck out of it...heard him complain so I knew it was tight enough. At about this time, two other women showed up from a local house where they heard the accident from. I asked them to get the riders name, and a contact number of family or friends if they could. At that point, I basically tried to keep an eye out for bleeding (pretty sure at one time I saw leg meat...it was undoubtedly a compound fracture, and whether or not the lower leg was actually still attached is questionable)...was the blood slowing, was he bleeding from anywhere else, etc. About a minute or so later, the first police arrived on scene. I told them what was done already and they assessed the scene and got on the radio to hurry up the EMT's. At that point, they began talking to the driver of the car, taking pics, getting my info and statement (as I was the only witness to the actual accident as well) and doing their thing. About a minute or two later, fire and EMT's arrived and got to work. I was introduced as the one that applied the tq, and I relayed info to them...riders name, fact that family had been notified, time tq applied, etc, and then backed the hell out of their way. They took him to our local trauma center, even though there are closer hospitals. I stuck around a few minutes to make sure the cops had what they needed from me, and actually helped direct traffic for a minute to clear the intersection where this occurred. I hopped in my car and began the rest of my trip home...only realizing a few minutes later that I need to pull over to process things. I took a few pics, mostly just overall scene kind of pics, no wound close-ups or anything like that, kind of as a CYA for myself just in case, as I wanted to not forget things and wanted to be able to recall properly what happened, etc.
The overall scene... truck in the center was party to the collision. That's my car to the right. Rider already gone.
The real medics getting the work done, getting the rider ready for transport.
The aftermath... I told this story a few places and talked about it with my wife, but was still feeling the adrenalin high/dump well into Tuesday...I'm guessing because I at least wanted to know if the rider lived. I wasn't seeing anything in the news about it (although every time I looked and saw the headlines about 3 other motorcyclists killed over the weekend my heart stopped beating until I realized that wasn't "my" incident)... Tuesday afternoon, I got a call from the local police department where the accident occurred. I assumed the worst, that they were calling me to inform me the rider had passed and it was now a vehicular manslaughter case or something, and probably stopped breathing for a minute....right up until the officer spit out that the family wanted me to know, that according to the doctor, this mans life and leg were saved by the application of a tourniquet that I put on. It's still hard to type that without almost losing my shit...that's probably the best and coolest phone call I have ever received.
So...carry a tourniquet (and gloves), or a full on med kit. Have it handy. Know how to use it...whether training or learning on your own, know how to put it to use to save a life. First Aid/CPR training is great, and the fact that they emphasize telling others what to do is spot on...take control and get to work if no one else has the tools or knowledge. Dark Angel has been great in this case, and are replacing the components I used in this incident. I've since ordered another kit, and several friends have too, after Kerry took the time to personally respond.