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It's a pretty bulky device, and space is at a premium on an ambulance. The intended use case is for the police to carry this, not ambulances: He said it was k

It's a pretty bulky device, and space is at a premium on an ambulance. The intended use case is for the police to carry this, not ambulances: He said it was key for the first people to a stabbing, which is often the police, to stop excessive blood loss while they wait for paramedics to arrive. So maybe the debate people are having about this detail is a moot point?

killjoywashere 5y ago
The typical police cruiser has a much more severe space premium, particularly for first aid supplies. An ambulance is a whole box full of first aid supplies.
- DoreenMichele 5y ago
  That is no doubt true. And much more pertinent to the suggested use case.
- dogma1138 5y ago
  It’s about the size of a hand drill and can probably be miniaturized further, heck you might not even need to inflate with an electric pump, you can probably have a small electronically controlled valve and a CO2 canister similar to those used for quickly inflating bike tires. The only real issue I see with this is it’s actual applicability most stab victims get stabbed multiple times, often in the same area plugging one hole might not do you good when there are 5 more around it, heck the balloon might exacerbate the bleeding from adjacent injuries.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - Y-Bopinator 5y ago
    Good luck blowing up stab wounds with CO2 hahaha idiot
MichaelEstes 5y ago
I've been around a lot of police officers in my life and I can count on one hand the number that have even attempted life savings measures when arriving first to a scene that required them
- Aeolun 5y ago
  If you don’t try, you can’t fail.
- chmod600 5y ago
  Is it due to lack of training for life-saving measures, or fear of doing something wrong and getting punished, or something else?
  - DoreenMichele 5y ago
    It's possibly outside the scope of their training and just not what they are there for. This device may be technically cool but simply not practical in application for a long list of reasons. Logistics, what works in practice given humans being human, etc may make this a nice idea in theory but not practice. Stab wounds are particularly ugly. I used to pay accident claims and our payouts were not designed to adequately address stab wounds. Pay was based on length of the cut requiring sutures and stab wounds are often small in size, may go unsutured while they try to prevent gangrene from taking hold and have various other challenges to both treatment and trying to figure out how to classify them for purposes of trying to pay for the treatment. I'm sympathetic to the inventors horror at stab wounds but a lot of medical stuff is just not as simple and straight forward as we would like it to be. I'm not trying discourage the use of this. I have no power to make policy or decisions of that sort. HN is just an online discussion forum and I know something about medical topics and for the conversation to be at all meaningful, you at least need to be talking about what is actually being proposed. I was just trying to nudge the discussion in that direction.
  - an_opabinia 5y ago
    There's a great study that shows how the "homeboys" driving their buddies to the hospital after gunshot / stabbing trauma have better outcomes than the paramedics because (1) the police mostly delay paramedics' arrival, (2) homeboys are already on the scene, (3) homeboys are faster at getting to the hospital. This is why police are not allowed inside hospitals to interview patients - their loitering outside ERs is barely tolerated by staff in major metros. They harm health outcomes (surprise, surprise). Is this lack of training? Where were the police earlier, before the gangsters shot each other? There is already evidence they delay care and harm outcomes, and they do not change what they do, so why would they carry life saving devices? They don't, because like with drug addiction, public health isn't commensurable with modern law enforcement. On the flip side, nobody is really satisfied with the idea that it takes a trauma surgeon to save you. You're right that it takes skills, but not skills that a paramedic, a nurse or many other people have.

killjoywashere 5y ago

The typical police cruiser has a much more severe space premium, particularly for first aid supplies. An ambulance is a whole box full of first aid supplies.

DoreenMichele 5y ago
That is no doubt true. And much more pertinent to the suggested use case.
dogma1138 5y ago
It’s about the size of a hand drill and can probably be miniaturized further, heck you might not even need to inflate with an electric pump, you can probably have a small electronically controlled valve and a CO2 canister similar to those used for quickly inflating bike tires. The only real issue I see with this is it’s actual applicability most stab victims get stabbed multiple times, often in the same area plugging one hole might not do you good when there are 5 more around it, heck the balloon might exacerbate the bleeding from adjacent injuries.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- Y-Bopinator 5y ago
  Good luck blowing up stab wounds with CO2 hahaha idiot

MichaelEstes 5y ago

I've been around a lot of police officers in my life and I can count on one hand the number that have even attempted life savings measures when arriving first to a scene that required them

Aeolun 5y ago
If you don’t try, you can’t fail.
chmod600 5y ago
Is it due to lack of training for life-saving measures, or fear of doing something wrong and getting punished, or something else?
- DoreenMichele 5y ago
  It's possibly outside the scope of their training and just not what they are there for. This device may be technically cool but simply not practical in application for a long list of reasons. Logistics, what works in practice given humans being human, etc may make this a nice idea in theory but not practice. Stab wounds are particularly ugly. I used to pay accident claims and our payouts were not designed to adequately address stab wounds. Pay was based on length of the cut requiring sutures and stab wounds are often small in size, may go unsutured while they try to prevent gangrene from taking hold and have various other challenges to both treatment and trying to figure out how to classify them for purposes of trying to pay for the treatment. I'm sympathetic to the inventors horror at stab wounds but a lot of medical stuff is just not as simple and straight forward as we would like it to be. I'm not trying discourage the use of this. I have no power to make policy or decisions of that sort. HN is just an online discussion forum and I know something about medical topics and for the conversation to be at all meaningful, you at least need to be talking about what is actually being proposed. I was just trying to nudge the discussion in that direction.
- an_opabinia 5y ago
  There's a great study that shows how the "homeboys" driving their buddies to the hospital after gunshot / stabbing trauma have better outcomes than the paramedics because (1) the police mostly delay paramedics' arrival, (2) homeboys are already on the scene, (3) homeboys are faster at getting to the hospital. This is why police are not allowed inside hospitals to interview patients - their loitering outside ERs is barely tolerated by staff in major metros. They harm health outcomes (surprise, surprise). Is this lack of training? Where were the police earlier, before the gangsters shot each other? There is already evidence they delay care and harm outcomes, and they do not change what they do, so why would they carry life saving devices? They don't, because like with drug addiction, public health isn't commensurable with modern law enforcement. On the flip side, nobody is really satisfied with the idea that it takes a trauma surgeon to save you. You're right that it takes skills, but not skills that a paramedic, a nurse or many other people have.