Use tea to control bleeding

I read an article yesterday or today about some new research that uses
shrimp shells (ground up, or maybe an extract - I don't recall) when
making bandages. Some ingredient in the shrimp shells apparently stops
bleeding, and so the military is quite interested in the research.

Well, shucks. I've used regular old tea as a key component of first aid
kits for decades. We typically keep a large box of Lipton or other
inexpensive black tea bags on hand. I first heard about this over 25
years ago, when I'd had some oral surgery and the stitches opened up. I
went to the hospital, and after 4 hours - and they were unable to get
the slow bleeding to stop - I went home! Yup, they gave up. OK, it was
the middle of the night, and I probably wasn't going to die, but still
you would have thought they'd do better than a few gauze packs and then
give up! Well anyway, my roommate then suggested I slap a tea bag or
two on the wound. I did and in a few minutes the bleeding had stopped.

Ever since then, if I ever need to stem the flow of blood from a wound,
I grab for the tea. Heck, a few times I've done a little minor
self-surgery to remove a wart (slap on some alcohol, use a nail clipper
or pocket knife to remove the wart and dig out the roots, slap on a
little more alcohol, then put some tea on the wound and a band-aid.
Standard disclaimer: do not try this; if you do, you are an idiot.
Anyway, for theses instances, or other times when I've received a gash
from an errant elbow in a soccer match or other good fun, tea has done
the trick for me. In the case of the elbow to eyebrow gash, I found
that disinfecting the cut and using some black tea and butterfly
closures was, for me, preferable to a trip to the hospital for stitches
...not to mention avoiding hours of waiting around.

Yup, yet another benefit of tea. 'Tho coffee is still my preferred source for caffeine.

Comments

[Michol]

Hey, the bio bandaid that stops bleeding was developed right here in P-Town! I have seen them used and it is amazing. I have never tried tea, but I will throw some in the first aid box to try next time the opportunity arises. What kind do you use exactly? Does it sting?

[Joe Litton]

Michol, I've always just used Lipton black tea bags ...or whatever was cheapest at the store. No sting. But then, I've usually slopped on a bunch of rubbing alcohol anyway, so it's not like I'd notice any more stinging :-)

[Morgan Humble]

Haha. I remembered this scene from Rambo III, when Rambo got wounded in the stomach. To staunch the bleeding, he used gunpowder to cauterized the wound. While this looks cool, it's actually very dangerous in real life. The technique is used in some minor surgical procedures, especially dentistry (of course they don't use gunpowder) where small blood vessels are involved (it's mostly capillary bleeding). Now, in a survival situation, when you're bleeding profusely from a severe wound and you can't use a bandage, then it might be worth the risk to cauterize the wound. Just use a tourniquet and go to the nearest hospital.