Counter-terror charity citizenAID® has launched its new Tourni-Key - a groundbreaking tool designed to save lives following terror attacks
Founded by four top UK civilian and military clinicians, citizenAID® aims to improve public resilience through the use of its free smartphone app and printed pocket guide which teaches individuals to ‘be prepared not scared’ in the event of a terrorist incident through key ‘Run, Hide, Tell, Treat’ principles.
Recognising the time delay between an attack and the emergency services arriving, citizenAID® educates the public to act on principles used by soldiers to save comrades in battle so they can help themselves and the injured around them.
Last week, it won the Counter Terror Project Award at the 2018 Security & Counter Terror Expo at Olympia in London. citizenAID®’s new Tourni-Key - a rigid, plastic device that converts a tie, scarf of other strip of material into a tourniquet – has been designed by the citizenAID® founders to help the public treat those with severe limb bleeding, improving outcomes and potentially saving lives.
Tourni-Key inventor and citizenAID® trustee Brigadier Tim Hodgetts CBE, said: “The Tourni-Key has been developed to meet a direct need. Experience has taught us there is a predictable delay between an attack taking place and professional help reaching the injured. This means those within the incident, the public, are the ones who can make the difference in saving life from severe bleeding.
“The Tourni-Key is a light, rigid plastic device, in high visibility yellow, that converts a strip of material into an effective tourniquet. Its unique design allows the tourniquet to be quickly secured. As a low-cost alternative, there is a realistic opportunity to make this life-saving skill more widely available and to empower a critical mass of the public and first responders.”
“In addition, we know tourniquets are painful, so to reduce the pain from skin bunching as the tourniquet is tightened we have included the idea of an Anti-Pinch Card. There is space on the card to record the time the tourniquet is applied, which is important for a hospital to know.”
Since 2006, military evidence proves the life-saving value of a tourniquet to control severe bleeding from limbs where wound packing and pressure hasn’t worked.
Recent terror attacks have highlighted the need for the public to step in and treat the injured until emergency services arrive. CitizenAID®’s new Tourni-Key provides a simple, affordable solution to improvise an effective tourniquet from a tie, scarf or a triangular bandage.
Since its launch 2017, citizenAID® has received an overwhelming response its free smartphone app, which secured the top Apple Store spot.
The new Tourni-Key is available from SP Services [UK] Ltd, and is the first in a series of life-saving equipment to be launched by the citizenAID® team, with additional products set to be introduced to market later this year.
