C-A-Tourniquet®

Challenge -  A former soldier who fought in the Middle East realized that the prescribed technique of making a field tourniquet out of a belt and a stick was lacking because there are so few sticks to be found in a desert.  He wanted to make sure soldiers didn’t die needlessly from loss of blood.

Solution -  This former soldier brought his idea to Composite Resources.  We helped him refine the idea, design the product and create a manufacturing process that would meet military specifications.  The Combat Application Tourniquet (C-A-T®) was born. Composed of Velcro straps and precision injection molded plastic parts, the C-A-T® is a simple, yet sophisticated life and limb saving device.

Result -  Used by military, EMS and “first responder” organizations around the globe, the C-A-T® has first and foremost saved thousands of lives – military and civilian.  An unexpected result of the U.S. military’s use of the C-A-T®, was the debunking of the old slogan for tourniquet use – “Life or Limb”.  In fact, the military experience was that tourniquet use rarely resulted in loss of limb while certainly saving lives.  As a result, the U.S. Military changed their policy on tourniquet use and now encourages the use of the C-A-T® for any major limb injury and the C-A-T® has become the most respected tourniquet of its kind in the world.