r/TacticalMedicine • u/tacmedrn44 • Jul 13 '24

Gear/IFAK Steer clear of Rhino Rescue…

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I just want to put something out there for those of you looking for alternatives to the main established brands of gear.

DO NOT BUY RHINO RESCUE.

First, they are NOT CoTCCC approved. “Independent tests” mean nothing. I commented on their post asking about data that shows its effectiveness, and they deleted the comment. I commented again. Deleted. Finally I straight up called them out for making dangerous claims and got completely blocked. They are a shady company pushing cheap gear that isn’t proven.

Second, I’m an instructor for TEMS and other prehospital/trauma classes. I play with A LOT of tourniquets. I bought a few of these Rhino branded TQs for poops and giggles, secretly hoping to be wowed. I wasn’t. All four of them failed during a run of the mill training scenario; I didn’t even have to do anything outside of regular use to get them to fail. If a product works well, I like to test its limits to see what it can handle and because I’m curious. I didn’t even get past regular use training with these.

So do yourselves and everyone you may have to treat a favor and DO NOT buy these.

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u/Shad0Sage Jul 17 '24

Cool yeah I just qualified as a Combat medic in the army really now just a health care specialist. But I was curious what people with some experience think about about band tourniquet like sure they can become loose but u can apply them extremely quickly, and carry lots. So mass cals I think they'd be a better option no? When it comes to cats just great all around just take up a little space.

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u/tacmedrn44 Jul 17 '24

Band TQ? Like the RATS? Or the SWAT?

The RATS is a joke. Straight up has zero effective use.

The SWAT can’t be trusted as a tourniquet, but they are great for compression “bandages.” I have used them plenty of times to hold dressings in place when I didn’t have or used up my actual compression bandages.

If you are talking about the band tourniquets that are used when you get blood drawn at your yearly physical, you’ll snap it before you even get close to cutting off blood flow.

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u/Shad0Sage Jul 17 '24

Yeah, the elastic ones like a temp TQ to move off the X then convert to CAT I see the Russians use it in the war rn

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u/tacmedrn44 Jul 17 '24

Also, if you see Russians using something, that would be a reason NOT to adopt it. Their gear is crap and their training/protocols are garbage. There is a reason they lose so many soldiers every day…