A word on tourniquets from Dr. Alex Eastman

Just ten weeks after new Downed Officer Kits (DOKs) were issued to Dallas Police Department officers, a DOK was used to treat one of our officers wounded in the line of duty.  Immediately after Officer Joshua Burns sustained multiple gunshot wounds on duty, fellow officers came to his aid using the contents of the DOK.  Fellow officers applied a tourniquet and used gauze to treat Officer Burns’ wounds,stopping his bleeding, prior to the arrival of Dallas Fire-Rescue.

The DOK contains cutting-edge hemorrhage control equipment and is designed to allow officers to literally save a life in the event of injury.  While designed to give officers the equipment and knowledge to save our own, over 1,500 kits have been deployed into the field and are on the streets of Dallas making our community safer.

In addition to all their other duties, Dallas Police officers are now trained and equipped to control massive bleeding right at the point of injury. While we never want to see an officer or citizen injured, we are more prepared now to save lives when the unthinkable happens.