Home remedies for wound bleeding
Important reminders before attempting to stop the bleeding:
1. Wash your hands well with soap and water, if available.
2. Put on medical gloves, if available, before applying direct pressure to the wound. If gloves are not available, use many layers of clean cloth, plastic bags, or the cleanest material available between your hands and the wound.
3. Have the injured person hold direct pressure on the wound, if possible, and elevate the injured area.
4. Use your bare hands to apply direct pressure only as a last resort.
Stop the bleeding:
1. Apply direct pressure on a bleeding wound. A wound that is deep, bleeding heavily, or has blood spurting from it (caused by bleeding from an artery). Applying direct pressure will stop the bleeding. Ideally a barrier, such as sterile, low-adherent gauze should be used between the pressure supplier and the wound, to help reduce chances of infection and help the wound to seal.
Hold continuous pressure for at least 20 minutes without looking to see if the bleeding stopped. You can maintain pressure by binding the wound tightly with a bandage (or even a piece of clean clothing) and adhesive tape.
2. Elevate the affected part. Keeping the wound above the level of the heart will decrease the pressure at the point of injury, and will reduce the bleeding. This mainly applies to limbs and the head, as it is impractical (and in some cases damaging) to attempt to move the torso around to achieve this. Most protocols also do not use elevation on limbs which are broken, as this may exacerbate the injury.
3. Cleaning with a gentle soap and water helps to reduce the chance of bacterial infection. By doing this you are also removing any obvious dirt or debris from the wound, getting lesser chance for wound infection or contamination.
