Officials of the San Diego Fire-Rescue agency say that a dispatcher’s instructions to passersby to remove a tourniquet they placed on an accident victim whose leg was severed, was a mistake. However, they say it’s questionable if the error led to the man’s death later in a hospital, since paramedics arrived within three minutes and reapplied the tourniquet. City EMS director Jim Dunford said he had not spoken to the unnamed dispatcher, and didn’t know why she gave the advice. He said EMD tourniquet advice for the last two years has been to leave it in place until a firefighter arrives and medically evaluates the patient. In this case, the victim was a pedestrian in the roadway and was hit by a motorcycle, severing his leg below the knee. A witness to the accident was ex-military, and used his belt as a tourniquet. However, when the man’s girlfriend dialed 911, the dispatcher told him, “We need to take that belt off. We don’t want to tourniquet it.” Dunford said it’s the first time he’s heard of such a mistake in 25 years, and that all dispatchers are being updated on the current tourniquet policy. Read more about the incident here.
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