In a scene from The Blacklist, one of the characters uses a lighter on a wound to “cauterize” it. It looks painful but works. What exactly is it and is it actually done in medical scenarios?
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Not an expert, just have some sport and armed first aid training.
Tourniquet is first go to for major extremity wounds. Most scenarios it will be removed by doctors within an hour or two and will not cause any issues. If it is going to be longer than a few hours for help, like 2 day hike out of the woods, cauterizing a wound would be considered if you cannot control the bleed while being mobile with normal wound dressing. It changes the clock from how fast you will bleed out to how long will you fight infection. It’s a slower, but more painful way to die, but you might make it to medical staff in time to save your life. But first step in torso wounds, you should take is pack the wound, never remove the bandage if it is bleeding through, pack it until it stops. Removing the bandage pulls clotting out and can reopen wound. Pack and press, once bleeding is under control.
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