A former Navy nurse has designed a new combat tourniquet modeled after the classic zip tie — which is similar to the Flex-Cuffs troops use to restrain detainees. Paula Holcomb, and her Marine husband, unveiled her inexpensive Cobra Tourniquet at Modern Day Marine 2011.
Holcomb came up with the idea in 2009 after seeing the U.S. Military issue tourniquet her husband Mike was packing for his deployment to Iraq. The former intensive care unit nurse thought she could do better.
The Cobra Tourniquet is one inch in width and wraps easily around appendages. The Nylon 66 material is stiff enough so it will stay flat against the skin and distribute pressure evenly. It’s strong enough to hold 250 pounds, said Holcomb, the owner of Cinch Tourniquets.
We had two Marines, with full gear on, doing pull-ups off of one, she said.
The Cobra also has a built-in note space for recording the time and date it was applied.
The Holcombs are confident in the product but were quick to point out that is has not been through military testing. They are now talking to both the Army and Marine Corps with the hope of having the Cobra Tourniquet tested and blessed for battlefield use.
The Cobra Tourniquet retails for $20 and comes in Foliage Green and Coyote Brown.
{ 36 comments… read them below or add one }
This falls under the ” why hasn’t someone thought of that before?” Category. Simple and smart.
That is great idea simple easy to use, this should be a million dollar idea
Shouldn't the color be something that stands out to draw attention to it's application? In field it's probably in some pouch, so there is no need for those two color choices.
Pretty sure loss of limb or the copious amount of blood that accompanies an injury requiring a tourniquet will draw plenty of attention to its application. Making it 1" wide and camo colored allows troops to snake it into their MOLLE gear where it's easy to get to, a lot like flex cuffs. So, no pouch, no bright colors.
This is great, I hope someone is able to accomplish testing and it shakes out. It is full of win..
One of the first thoughts when I saw that is that people have the habit of pulling zipties as tight as possible
it'd better have a quick release
It does: http://www.cinchtq.com/product-information.html
I thought that too and figured they would have also. Otherwise it's not a tourniquet so much as a tissue killing device :-p
It seems the old myths about TQ's are alive and well.
The current state of the art suggests that one has between 4 to 7 hours before 'tissue death' is an issue.
And considering that the TQ is used to stop life threatening hemorrhage, one will have a lot more important issues to focus on during that time.
Additionally, there is absolutely no reason that, once applied in the correct location, a TQ should be ' backed off ' in a battlefield situation.
tq's are only supposed to be released by a dr in a hospital setting. The battlefield applicator is not supposed to take it off once applied, even if bleeding is under control.
Thanks to all for the positive response. The reason it is in two colors is it that it is MOLLE compatible and slides through the webbing on the back of your OTV, MTV, SAPI plate carrier, or Army vests. It has a bend in the "neck" that acts like a leaf spring to keep a tension lock and hold the tourniquet in place on your non-firing shoulder.
The quick release is recessed most of the way into the head to prevent accident release, yet protrudes just enough that you cn find it in a no light situation. The release was designed to work with an ACOG sight adjustment tool (i.e. a flat head screwdriver on a multiple-tool), however it works with keys, bottle openers, one "jaw" of EMT shears, nails, and even the right shaped rock. We do not recommend using a knife due to the potential for further injury from a slip. The real advantage here is that instead of backing a windlass off 180 degrees once you get the blood flow staunched, you can back the pressure off one notch at a time in a much more controlled fashion.
Our website is still in beta, but we do have some additional pictures posted at http://www.CinchTQ.com. We are also going to post some videos of the Cobra in use next week. The store should also be working by then as well.
GREAT answer!!! Good luck!
A lot of thought seems to have been made in the design of the products. Hope they work out, I can see this going into a lot of EMT kits too
From the story and the description above it sounds like a great product. I believe its comparably priced to the CAT tourniquet. Maybe mass adoption will bring the price down a tad but it seems like a potential supplement to the current CAT, maybe even a replacement?
looks awesome would love try one out in training, the only concern i have as an army medic is being able to manipulate the quick release when im about to poop my pants with stress. As for a cls guy this would be perfect. alot of joes I train never get the CAT tight enough. especially in training they just wanna check the box and move on. looks superb for buddy aid! I would love to show this to my leadership.
Brilliant, simple, and elegant… Why didn't I think of that?
Looks good how do you loosen it though when you have to let it lose? Looks like a way to lose your circulation hope there's a way.
Read the comment from clinch tourniquets above.
your suposed to lose distal circulation from a tq lance
$20,for what is essentially a big,fat zip tie,even for what looks to be a good product,is ridiculous.
Just another example of something that someone slaps "Tactical" label on it,and bends Soldiers & Marines over asking "How much can we get for this" or "How much would they pay?
THEN, their mind locks on to "Government Contract",and THEN their heads get light,their mind races,and they get giddy thinking "Ooooo, the damn Government will pay whatever we ask!! We can ask whatever we want, and the government will probably pay!!!"
I realize making things cost money. I also realize since the "Tactical" explosion in the 90's, anything with a military connection can/will have a "tactical" label slapped on it and jack the price up 4 times or more than need be.
Rather than be honorable and make a little profit and fill a need,people,especially people involved with military items, but I mean all people and business' nowadays,are just concerned with "how much can we squeeze someone for", and "how much money can we put in our bank account,how fast and how often?".
Part of whats wrong with America.
How a zip tie can have a $20 price tag,for ONE,is not just wrong,it is disgusting,and all involved should be ashamed of themselves
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Prove that you can do the exact same thing with commercial zip-ties with the same quality as these guys, and then I'll listen to you……
I just went to homedepot before deployment and baught zip ties, almost the same size. they do have them already, just with no "tactical" tag like alan mentioned.
This is a brand new product in its initial offering. As units are sold, the cost will come down as they continue to produce. This is because they have manufacturing cost, research and development costs, tooling costs, material costs and payroll to cover. so right now it's $20.00 a unit. Give it a year or two and that cost should come down dramatically, but that will only happen after time and many orders. Hopefully, the bigger, the better.
This is very similar to the older style of tq's invented during the civil war, a strap with a buckle, that remained in service until 2003-4. The army did their first test on them around 2002 and learned that without the windlass there wasn't enough pressure to stop major arteries from bleeding. You couldn't physically pull enough pressure into the one-way buckle to do it. This is essentially the exact same design but out of plastic instead of leather/canvas and metal. The military testing will probably give the exact same result.
I agree with @Paranemec, it doesn't work unless there is a windlass, or we wouldn't have tourniquest with them, it would just be a strap and a buckle. I also don't like of the idea of having use a screwdriver to loosen it. The Soft-T or the cat are simple yet robust enough to do the job. I KNOW that they work. This is just a bad idea.
I wasn't saying it's a bad idea. Believe me, I thought of it years ago. The problem is that you need a mechanical advantage to create enough pressure to stop blood flow adequately. Carrying a seperate tool to create that advantage would make too complicated of a system under stress and you would need to package the tool with EVERY device. Also, they do make that tool already. It's a zip-tie tightener. Problem is it's expensive too. but combined with this it would make an effective tourniquet. I spent a lot of time in the military sitting around and thinking "How can we make this device better/smaller/easier to use…"
1) hard to see how you could apply enough force to achieve occlusion on a thigh. An arm, yes, but the thigh on a big dude? Takes a lot of force to achieve that.
2) how would you self-apply it one handed? Not saying its impossible, just looks like it would be tough to thread under stress plus blood/mud/etc. Only so much you can figure out from just photos.
Thanks again to all for the interest. How we've been able to do generate enough pressure to stop bleeding is in the material, width, and via mechanical advantage. Current windlass tourniquets use a soft material for the strap, usually nylon. Under pressure many of these straps fold back on themselves, almost in a "V" shape, and do not maintain their starting width. That width matters in both stopping blood loss and preventing limb damage; check out Limb Occlusion Pressure and the papers on military tourniquet use at tourniquets.org. Our product uses nylon 6/6, so it won't fold in on itself and will maintain a full inch all the way round the limb. Additionally, the tourniquet holds in excess of 200 lbs. Compare that to tourniquets that uses a thin plastic windlass to apply pressure. Also, when looking at the historical examples you'll note that the strap was made from a material that stretched, and usually was secured with a buckle of some sort that took a bit of manipulation to tighten. Both of these factors worked against the first responder's ability to keep pressure on the affected limb. With our tourniquet every time you tighten it down a notch or ten, it doesn't slip back, so you don't lose the tension you just worked to apply. Then the nylon 6/6 is stiff and does not stretch under environmental temperatures, preventing losses of pressure there as well.
One handed application actually goes pretty quick. Strong side arm is the hardest, but if you pinch the tourniquet under your armpit or against your body armor, reach around your arm to the exact point where it comes out (vice hunting for a dangling strap) and bend the two ends together and use the stiffness of the material against your body or body armor it is easy to connect, tighten up, and cinch down.
This a good Idea. If I carried one I would pre loop one so it would be ready to go to use on myself and carry one that is not looped so if I need to slide it around something I would have that option too. Could you make them in black so the police could carry them too. Just my 2 cents.
Still might want to consider offering these in red. Understand the concernt about camo if inserted into PALS looping but the visible payoff that a tourniquet has been applied is important. One can place this and others in the trauma pouch and if camo is a real concern just slide it behind some attached pouches cutting down on what's visible. Not a deal breaker either way. The CAT is black and tough to see in the dark.
I would wear a black one wrapped around my duty belt behind my pouches and a red one might not go so good with the boss. If SHTF I don't think to many people will be to worried about the color of the tourniquet that's being used. How many troops are left alone with a tourniquet on them now days?
Everyone in my platoon was issued 2 tourniquets last time I was in the sandbox. They're usually standard issue now that IEDs are the biggest threat.
TWO IS ONE AND ONE IS NONE.
Brilliant invention, I was deployed with the CAT, a fragile large thing with plastic locks that broke off.
Also they charged about 50 bucks for them and few of them saw any use because people preffered to use an Israeli Bandage.
The ease of use, durability and ease of packing will make this a big seller.
For commercial use 20 dollars for a zip tie is rediculous but for army acquisition projects I think it is a decent price and I hope you sell a million of them.
I’d love to do an evaluation on one of these. It would be interesting to see the difference in performance compared to a standard tourniquet.
I've been unfortunate enough to use a few tourniquets in combat and have never had a problem with the application. The CAT is a reliable product once you understand everything that can make it break. It takes little training to use and with practice can be quickly applied under stress. That being said, an easy to use and reliable product that can decrease application time is definately worth a look. I've been thinking about your product since I stumbled onto this article and can't think of any major gripes. Actually, it's such a simple idea (like many of the greatest inventions usually are), and I'm truely impressed by it. I'd like to test a couple. How can I get them?