It’s called ‘WoundClot’, and if a Pewaukee company gets its wish, you’ll soon see it on the belt of every police officer nation-wide.
The new product is an advanced form of gauze, which the company says is 5 times stronger than comparable products.
“This is advanced bleeding control,” says Pro1Tek Owner Elizabeth Kemp. “It’s easy to apply, it works very quickly, and it activates with the blood in gelling it up, so that in transport it reduces a re-bleed.”
Kemp found the product in Israel, and recently received FDA approval to introduce it in the United States. When the product touches a substance like blood, it gels up, creating an immediate stopgap.
“We decided that we needed to give them a tool kit in which they would have a higher success rate if we put things at their finger tips,” she says.
The product is part of a product called an “Empact Bag”, which features medical and tactical tools that can be used during situations like a mass shooting. Kemp would not show us everything in the bag, but did demonstrate a door-stop that helps secure a building, and a handful of first-aid products.
The product has already received the endorsement of former Oak Creek Police Lieutenant Bryan Murphy. Murphy was shot 15 times while responding to the Sikh Temple shooting in Oak Creek.
“This is the ultimate life-saving bag as far as I’m concerned,” he says. “Had the Empact Bags been available to the members of the temple, they could have closed themselves off and provided more time for police to arrive, and to resolve the situation quicker with probably less loss of life.”
The company is working with Goodwill Industries of Southeastern Wisconsin to assemble and package the kits.
The bags are customizable, and can serve large groups of people with a single bag.
Kemp says the company also sells items like WoundClot individually.
