A pocket-sized syringe that has saved the lives of wounded soldiers might soon be available for regular Americans.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced its approval of the XSTAT 30 this week. It’s a syringe that stops the bleeding caused by knife and gunshot wounds.
The device, made by Oregon-based medical device company RevMedx, has been used on the battlefield since April 2014.
Here’s how it works
Each syringe contains 92 compressed, antimicrobial sponges made from a wood pulp that won’t dissolve in the body. The sponges are coated with chitosan, which helps blood clot and resists infection.
The tiny sponges also have markings that will show up on X-rays, so they can be seen and removed if they get stuck in the body.
When the sponges are injected into a wound, they swell up and pack it by clinging to the moisture. Each applicator has enough to absorb a pint of blood, and up to three can be used on one person.
The treatment lasts for up to four hours — enough to give the victim time to get to a hospital and into surgery.
XSTAT has been used on the battlefield to stop bleeding when soldiers have a wound that’s difficult to alleviate with a tourniquet.
Why civilians need this, too
This device could come in handy in a crisis, the FDA pointed out, because 30-40% of regular civilians who suffer traumatic injuries die from bleeding out. And of those deaths, 33-56% die on their way to the hospital.
“By the time you even put a bandage over the wound (with this), the bleeding has already stopped,” former U.S. Army Special Operations medic John Steinbaugh told Popular Science about the product.
I hate to be cynical. But given the horrific mass shootings that happen regularly around the country, I feel that every American should start carrying one of these in their bags.
After all, 30 Americans die every day in gun homicides, and another 200 are injured by bullets. In fact, if you go to this Slate article, you can see how many people have been shot in your neighborhood.
When I looked up my neighborhood, I found there had been 27 shootings within a 1-mile radius of my house in the last year. 14 fatal, 13 non-fatal. Comforting.
You can order these devices at RevMedx’s website.
The site did not say how much the devices will cost.
Better safe than sorry, right?
