I started searching.
"What to do severe bleeding"
"How to stop bleeding fast"
"Emergency first aid serious cuts"
That's when I found it.
A video. Some former Army medic in his garage.
Title: "Why Your First Aid Kit Will Get Someone Killed"
I almost didn't click it. Seemed dramatic.
But something made me watch.
He held up a standard drugstore first aid kit.
"This," he said, "is designed for boo boos. Scraped knees. Paper cuts. Bee stings."
Then he held up a black pouch.
"This is designed to keep someone alive until the ambulance gets there."
He opened it.
Inside was stuff I'd never seen before in a first aid context.
A tourniquet. Bright orange, with a windlass and velcro.
A pressure bandage with some kind of plastic dome on it.
Gauze that looked thick, substantial. Not flimsy.
"This is an IFAK," he said. "Individual First Aid Kit. This is what soldiers carry. What cops carry. What firefighters keep in their trucks."
He held up the pressure bandage.
"This is called an Israeli bandage. Developed after the Yom Kippur War. It's a pressure dressing that actually creates focused pressure on a wound. Not just covering it. Actually stopping the bleeding."
He demonstrated on his own arm.
The way it wrapped. The way the plastic pressure applicator focused force directly on the wound site.
It was so simple. And so obvious.
And I'd never seen one in my life.
"Here's what people don't understand," he said. "When someone has severe bleeding, from a car accident, a workshop injury, a bad fall, you've got about three to five minutes before they go into hemorrhagic shock."
He paused.
"Average ambulance response time in the US is eight to ten minutes."
He let that sink in.
"You see the problem?"
I did.
For the first time, I actually did.