Using Wound Seal Powder

So, I had the opportunity to use Wound Seal powder on myself tonight and I thought I’d share the experience 😂.

Wound Seal Powder

We often talk about carrying QuikClot and similar products in our medical supplies and bug out bags, and the wound seal powder is the same or similar as what is in those, except those are in gauze so that less is left in the wound, and this is just the powder. Since it’s a supply often listed, it might be a good idea to know a little about what that experience is going to feel like for someone we are using it on.

I want to be sure to note, the powder is NOT for deep wounds or any kind of internal wounds. The quik clot packs are meant to be able to be shoved into a deep wound.

They used to make just the powder for that but that had to be scrubbed out before the wound could be repaired so they made it into the gauze instead, so when the gauze is removed, most of the agent comes out with it.

Wound seal powder is just for minor skin injuries where the powder sits on the skin, rather than deep inside a wound.

Injury At The Range

I had an oops at the range today, slide bite across the back of my thumb. It is pretty deep. It immediately started gushing blood.

It didn’t even really hurt. In fact i saw the blood and was like…uhh…where the hell is that coming from, did I catch a stray bullet and haven’t felt it yet? Then the stinging started and i realized it was my thumb.

I carry a Trauma Pak Pro absolutely everywhere, and an additional individual first aid kit, so I had supplies. My daughter was with me and we quickly got a gauze pad out and pressure on it. I had to wrap it and go to the bathroom to wash all the blood off my hands. We got clean gauze on it and taped it tight enough with leukotape to keep pressure on it.

I Kept Shooting

When I got home I cleaned it and got out wound seal, liquid bandage, fresh gauze pads, roll of gauze and the stretchy self adhesive tape stuff.

When cleaning, because it had started to seal up some, i didn’t work too hard at getting down into the wound. It bled so much at the range that it probably flushed most of the nasties out, but I’m going to keep a close eye on it for signs of infection.

It had started to open a bit and bleed some, so i dumped the wound seal powder on and about shot out of my chair. It was like pouring hot lava on my thumb. It burned like a lot.

So…I’m gonna assume that if you have to use quikclot or one of the other clotting agent gauze/sponges on someone, it’s probably also going to burn like hell.

Worth The Discomfort

Still worth it, especially if it is going to save a life or there aren’t medical providers around to take care of injuries. In fact I’m going to make sure I have wound seal powder in my IFAK from now on.

Since someone will ask, I considered going in to have it sutured, but really, the entire point of suturing is to bring the skin together so it can heal shut. The wound isn’t gaping open, so it doesn’t need sutures to hold it shut. I could have gone in and they probably would have thrown a suture or two in there just to help it, but it’s definitely not critical for this one. If the edges weren’t trying to stay together on their own already, I absolutely would have gone in for sutures.