Fake tourniquets

Posted on by

I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned it before, but if a price on a CAT-style tourniquet seems too good to be true, it probably is. And, unlike many other counterfeit products, getting caught with one of these and having it fail when you need it is, literally, a matter of life and death.

I got a reminder about this in my email today from NAR. If you think about it, t his thing is simply injection moulded plastic and some nylon webbing. That means the barrier to entry for making a knockoff is pretty darn low. As a result, these things are all over Amazon and eBay. Yes, there are other wendors with nigh-impeccable creds selling the genuine product….but I’m just not willing to take the chance that their purchasing agent made a mistake that month and got some knockoffs from Glorious Peoples Plastic Factory No. 55 in Changzhou.

This is one of the very few products that I will not buy, no matter how discounted, from anywhere except NAR. I will spend an extra ten bucks or so to ensure that I’m getting something that actually does what its supposed to do when its supposed to. There are times to shop around and save money but when it comes to things like scuba gear, defense lawyers, parachutes, heart surgeons, and critical life saving equipment,  you’d have to be a fool to make cost the deciding discriminatory criteria.

I’ve a bunch of the CAT tourniquets, and every single one of them came straight from NAR. Sometimes NAR will have a sale and I’ll pick up a couple more as gifts or extras, but I never buy them from anywhere else no matter how discounted they are. I would recommend you do the same.

When it’s 3am and youre laid out in the back of a pickup truck speeding to a hospital with a fountain spurting from your leg,probably  the last thing youre going to think before passing out from blood loss as you stare at the broken tourniquet windlass won’t be “wow, I’m sure glad I saved that ten bucks.”

Even without TEOTWAWKI, stuff happens. Get a couple tourniquets, practice with them, carry them, and stay safe(r).

13 thoughts on “Fake tourniquets”

  1. 100% correct. Even if Amazon says it’s coming from NAR, it likely isn’t. The ONLY places I will buy them from are NAR directly, or maybe Chinook Medical. I simply don’t trust that the buyers for other places are knowledgeable enough to ensure they are buying the real thing.

    Frighteningly, I’ve seen knockoff CATs used in combat. How they got to Afghanistan I don’t know, but fortunately they got backed up by real CATs

  2. There are probably 50 YouTube videos on how to spot fake NAR tourniquets. I’ve purchased discounted Gen 7 ones from reputable online dealers and none have been fake and look identical to known legit ones. If you recieve a fake one, go online and trash their reputation for fraud.

  3. I strongly recommend you buy a blue “training “ CAT
    They are designed for repeated use (and abuse)
    Save your orange/black ones for the real thing

    EMS Instructor for >30 years

  4. >scuba gear, defense lawyers, parachutes, heart surgeons, and critical life >saving equipment,

    Sadly, I would add tax accountants to that list…
    Thanks from Italy,
    Daniele

  6. It’s always to purchase direct, when possible.
    North American Rescue has most everything one needs…
    And it’s ALL the real deal !

  8. Don’t forget proper procedure, when applied draw a LARGE”T” on the victims forehead with blood(if you need a tourniquet there will be plenty) along with the time as medical personnel will need that information for follow-up treatment.

Comments are closed.