AN Australian doctor has revealed a simple trick that could save your life after a shark attack.
Dr. Nicholas Taylor, Associate Dean of the ANU Medical School, surfer, and lead author on the study, has said making a fist and pushing hard on the femoral artery can stop bleeding almost immediately, providing vital time for help to arrive.
He first developed the idea after a family holiday to Western Australia at a time when there had been a spate of shark attacks.
He said: “If someone has been bitten on their leg, you only need to find the middle point between the hip and the genitals, make a fist, and push as hard as you can.
“I believe this could be life-saving if someone is bleeding heavily from their leg following a shark attack.”
According to Dr. Taylor, most surfers and rescuers would react instinctively to a shark bit wound by applying pressure directly to it or making a tourniquet with the material that was at hand.
Dr. Taylor explained that this would not be an appropriate response from his emergency room training.
To stop the victim from bleeding out, he suggested that cutting the flow from the Femoral Artery would be a better option. He had a second person push their weight into the area.
“This new method saves time and works better than using a leg rope or looking for something else to use as a tourniquet,” He said.
According to Dr. Taylor, studies have shown that the method has stopped 100% blood flow in 75% of participants.
This makes the method more effective than a standard tourniquet.
The researchers also looked into whether the wetsuit could make it more difficult, but they found no difference.
Dr. Taylor hopes that the first-aid trick will be useful at beaches around Australia and the world in order to save swimmers and surfers from being injured by shark attacks.
This advice comes at an era when shark attacks are on the rise. Nearly 800 people have been mauled in the last nine years.
America is now the shark capital of the world, surpassing Australia in terms of the number of attacks. Cape Cod, Massachusetts has seen 49 shark attacks this year.
There have been 49 shark attacks this year, six of which were fatal. The underwater predators are getting closer to humans.
The US recorded the largest number of shark bites, reporting 33 incidents, while Australia recorded 18.