Nick Lavery

So I was convinced that no matter what I did or what anyone did, that this was going to be my last day on earth. I was able to kind of get my head out of the clouds pretty quickly and go to work. So I started to treat myself with tourniquets and eventually with an internal pressure dressing, which is a wild experience to go through. But yeah, I thought that that was it, man.

Yeah, so Powerball is just a term we use when you're dealing with like soft gauze, medical gauze, and you just ball it up to create kind of like a golf ball out of it, just to give it a little bit of a density to work with. And it's used to create pressure dressing. Whoa.

Yeah, so Powerball is just a term we use when you're dealing with like soft gauze, medical gauze, and you just ball it up to create kind of like a golf ball out of it, just to give it a little bit of a density to work with. And it's used to create pressure dressing. Whoa.

Yeah, so Powerball is just a term we use when you're dealing with like soft gauze, medical gauze, and you just ball it up to create kind of like a golf ball out of it, just to give it a little bit of a density to work with. And it's used to create pressure dressing. Whoa.

What I needed was an internal pressure dressing because of where the location of the femoral artery had been severed was towards the top of my leg. It had retracted up into kind of where my pelvis is. So the artery is cut, it retracts. So now it's up almost by my hip.

What I needed was an internal pressure dressing because of where the location of the femoral artery had been severed was towards the top of my leg. It had retracted up into kind of where my pelvis is. So the artery is cut, it retracts. So now it's up almost by my hip.

What I needed was an internal pressure dressing because of where the location of the femoral artery had been severed was towards the top of my leg. It had retracted up into kind of where my pelvis is. So the artery is cut, it retracts. So now it's up almost by my hip.

And while we do have techniques like laguinal tourniquets, and actually we now have equipment that's built specifically to be able to apply pressure to the hip area specifically for this kind of injury. We didn't have any of that equipment. I didn't have anything on me. It really wasn't built into the way we trained. It was just get the tourniquet as high as you possibly can.

And while we do have techniques like laguinal tourniquets, and actually we now have equipment that's built specifically to be able to apply pressure to the hip area specifically for this kind of injury. We didn't have any of that equipment. I didn't have anything on me. It really wasn't built into the way we trained. It was just get the tourniquet as high as you possibly can.

And while we do have techniques like laguinal tourniquets, and actually we now have equipment that's built specifically to be able to apply pressure to the hip area specifically for this kind of injury. We didn't have any of that equipment. I didn't have anything on me. It really wasn't built into the way we trained. It was just get the tourniquet as high as you possibly can.

We couldn't get the tourniquets high enough on me because of where the artery was actually bleeding from. I ended up loosening up one of the highest tourniquets. And fortunately, I was hit from behind. And I say fortunately because the exit wound on most gunshots are typically a much larger cavity. So goes in, creates a small hole, comes out, much bigger hole.

We couldn't get the tourniquets high enough on me because of where the artery was actually bleeding from. I ended up loosening up one of the highest tourniquets. And fortunately, I was hit from behind. And I say fortunately because the exit wound on most gunshots are typically a much larger cavity. So goes in, creates a small hole, comes out, much bigger hole.

We couldn't get the tourniquets high enough on me because of where the artery was actually bleeding from. I ended up loosening up one of the highest tourniquets. And fortunately, I was hit from behind. And I say fortunately because the exit wound on most gunshots are typically a much larger cavity. So goes in, creates a small hole, comes out, much bigger hole.

So that bigger hole is right in front of me as I'm looking down at my leg. So I loosen up one of the tourniquets, create this power ball with this gauze, and I'm able to ram it into the wound, but then up towards my pelvis in order to get direct pressure on the femoral artery. So like half my hand is basically in my thigh at this point, and I'm reaching up towards my pelvis.

So that bigger hole is right in front of me as I'm looking down at my leg. So I loosen up one of the tourniquets, create this power ball with this gauze, and I'm able to ram it into the wound, but then up towards my pelvis in order to get direct pressure on the femoral artery. So like half my hand is basically in my thigh at this point, and I'm reaching up towards my pelvis.

So that bigger hole is right in front of me as I'm looking down at my leg. So I loosen up one of the tourniquets, create this power ball with this gauze, and I'm able to ram it into the wound, but then up towards my pelvis in order to get direct pressure on the femoral artery. So like half my hand is basically in my thigh at this point, and I'm reaching up towards my pelvis.

And eventually, I think I feel like a pulse. It was tough to tell. It's complete chaos going on around me. Explosions, gunfire, people screaming. But I think I feel something. And I'm kind of like, hey, what the hell with it? Let's just go. So I just squeeze as hard as I can. I feed all the rest of the gauze into the cavity on top of that.

And eventually, I think I feel like a pulse. It was tough to tell. It's complete chaos going on around me. Explosions, gunfire, people screaming. But I think I feel something. And I'm kind of like, hey, what the hell with it? Let's just go. So I just squeeze as hard as I can. I feed all the rest of the gauze into the cavity on top of that.

And eventually, I think I feel like a pulse. It was tough to tell. It's complete chaos going on around me. Explosions, gunfire, people screaming. But I think I feel something. And I'm kind of like, hey, what the hell with it? Let's just go. So I just squeeze as hard as I can. I feed all the rest of the gauze into the cavity on top of that.

And then I was able to secure a tourniquet on top of the gauze and wrench it down tight enough just to create that upward pressure directly into the femoral. And time would tell you that that worked because I didn't get medevaced for almost two hours after I was hit because of the ongoing gunfight. It just took a while. for them to be able to start landing birds.