Buyer's Handbook
Bleeding Control Kits
Tourniquets, wound packing gauze, and the kits that hold them. The class comes first and the kit second. What the national STOP THE BLEED program puts in its kits, which devices it accepts, and how to tell a real tourniquet from a copy.
Reviewed October 2026. We re-check this guide quarterly.
Buying guidance, not medical training. This page helps you choose equipment. It does not teach you to use it. In a bleeding emergency, call 911 first, then do what a hands-on class taught you.
Start here
A kit is useful in hands that have practiced
A ladder slips in the garage, a saw jumps on the workbench, a car ahead of you on the highway leaves the road. Most days nobody needs more than a bandage. On the rare day someone does, the people standing closest are the ones who can help before an ambulance arrives.
That idea is the whole of the national STOP THE BLEED® program. Its stated purpose is to help ordinary people control severe bleeding, and its stated goal is to make the training as common as CPR.[2] It teaches three actions, and a bleeding control kit is simply the equipment for those three actions.[3]
So this handbook is built in that order. First the class, which is about an hour and often free. Then the kit, which the program defines in three fixed versions, and the devices inside it, which the program reviews and names. Then what to buy, and from whom.
Before you buy
Five questions about your household
Answer these before you look at a single product. They decide which kit fits, how many you need, and where each one lives.
Has anyone in the house taken a hands-on bleeding control class?
If not, that is the first purchase, and often a free one. A kit nobody has practiced with is a box of unfamiliar parts.
Where could a serious cut or crash happen?
The kitchen and garage, the workshop, the car, the farm, a cabin. A kit helps only where it is within reach.
How long would an ambulance take to reach you?
The program points its Intermediate kit at places where an ambulance may take a while, such as farms, construction sites, and rural schools.
Who in the house would actually use it?
Every adult who might be there. A kit belongs to whoever is standing next to it, so more than one person should have taken the class.
Who will check it once a year?
Hemostatic dressings carry expiration dates, and used items need replacing right away. Put one person and one date on the calendar.
The class comes first
About an hour, and often free
STOP THE BLEED® launched at a White House ceremony in 2015 as a Department of Defense program. Its roots are in Iraq and Afghanistan, where military physicians found that blood loss was killing service members who could have been saved. In 2013 a group known as the Hartford Consensus recommended a national effort to train and equip the public in bleeding control.[2] The American College of Surgeons runs its own STOP THE BLEED® site under a license from the Defense Department.[8]
Every class covers the same three actions: direct pressure, wound packing, and applying a tourniquet. No medical background is required.[2]
Length
The Defense Department program says a class typically runs about one hour.[3] The American College of Surgeons says most courses take no longer than 90 minutes.[8]
Cost
Many classes are free. Where one charges a fee, the program says the fee only covers the cost of offering it.[3]
Format
Fully in person, or an online lecture paired with in-person practice. There is no certificate until you finish the hands-on part with an instructor.[3]
Renewal
The training has no formal expiration, and the program recommends periodic refreshers. Its own online videos count.[3]
There is no minimum age, and the class is commonly taught to middle and high school students as well as adults.[3] The American Red Cross teaches the same skills: its First Aid for Severe Bleeding course is about 30 minutes online and covers when and how to apply a tourniquet and a hemostatic dressing,[10] and the Red Cross also points to its First Aid for Severe Trauma (FAST) course.[9] The online course page does not describe hands-on practice, so pair it with an in-person session if you can.
One more worry worth settling. The program notes that Good Samaritan laws in every state generally protect people who give reasonable emergency help in good faith, and that the details vary by state.[3]
Find a class
Search for a course near you on the STOP THE BLEED class finder, or ask your local hospital, fire department, or trauma center. Our first aid certification guide covers how this class fits alongside CPR and first aid.
How it works
Three actions, and the tool for each
The program's own short answer to what to do: have someone call 911, then apply firm direct pressure. If bleeding continues and the wound is deep, pack it with gauze, cloth, or clothing. If there is still bleeding and you have a tourniquet, apply it 2 to 3 inches above the wound and keep tightening until the bleeding stops.[3] Every item in a kit maps to one of those steps.
1. Direct pressure
A compression bandage
Firm pressure is the first action and often the last one needed. Every STOP THE BLEED kit carries a compression bandage and nitrile gloves.[5]
2. Wound packing
Gauze
Packing a deep wound puts pressure where the bleeding is. Plain gauze works when packed correctly, and hemostatic gauze is used where a tourniquet will not work, such as the neck, shoulder, armpit, or groin.[7]
3. Tourniquet
For an arm or leg
The Red Cross says to use a tourniquet for life-threatening bleeding on an arm or leg, placed 2 to 3 inches above the wound, not on top of it and not on a joint.[9] Every kit includes a marker to write down the time it went on.[5]
Two details from the Red Cross shape what a household should expect. Tightening a tourniquet can hurt, so warn the person, and keep tightening even if they complain of pain. And if bleeding continues after the first one is as tight as it will go, a second tourniquet goes above the first, closer to the heart.[9] That second detail is a reason some people carry two.
Designs differ, so the Red Cross says to follow the maker's instructions for the device you have,[9] and the program says to apply its accepted tourniquets the way your class taught you and the way the package directions say.[6] Practice on the model you will actually own.
Safety: what no kit can do
- It cannot replace the 911 call. The program's first step is to have someone call 911, before pressure, packing, or a tourniquet.[3]
- It cannot replace the class. The program says you need training to use a hemostatic dressing properly,[7] and it issues no certificate until the hands-on practice is done.[3]
- A tourniquet is not undone at home. The Red Cross says not to loosen or remove a tourniquet once it is on; only a medical professional should.[9]
- Chest seals are not part of the class. The program says chest seal use is not taught in the STOP THE BLEED class, which is why its Advanced kit is meant for organizations whose responders have more training.[5]
The three kits
Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced
The program defines exactly three kits, with fixed names that sellers may not rename, abbreviate, or add to. Every one is sold by a company the program licenses, and every tourniquet and hemostatic dressing inside must be one the program has accepted.[5] A seller may add extras, such as trauma shears or a rescue blanket, without changing the name.[5]
For homes, cars, offices
Basic
- An accepted tourniquet
- Plain wound packing gauze
- A compression bandage
- Nitrile gloves
- A marker for the tourniquet time
- An instruction card or booklet
The program names offices, classrooms, cars, homes, and wall cabinets next to an AED.[5]
Where help is farther away
Intermediate
- Everything in Basic
- An accepted hemostatic dressing in place of the plain gauze
The program names factories, construction sites, rural schools, and farms, especially where an ambulance may take a while.[5]
For trained teams
Advanced
- Everything in Intermediate
- A two-pack of vented chest seals
The program names police and security teams, event venues, and transit systems whose responders have training beyond the class.[5]
Which one a household needs
For most homes and cars, the program's own placement answers the question: Basic. If you live or work far from an ambulance, on a farm, a ranch, or a rural property, the program's description of Intermediate fits you better. Advanced is built for organizations, not families.
Count by location rather than by person. A kit in the house does nothing for the crash on the drive home, so many households end up with one per car plus one at home.
The devices inside
Four tourniquets, three dressings
The program reviews devices and publishes the short list it accepts. If you buy a tourniquet or a dressing on its own, buy one from these lists.
Tourniquets
The program accepts four, listed in no particular order and with none recommended over the others:[6]
- SAM XT, from SAM Medical
- TMT, from Alphapointe
- SOFTT-W, from TacMed Solutions
- C-A-T, from North American Rescue
All four come from a Defense Department committee's recommended list, filtered to the ones a member of the public can apply with the class's training. The program notes the C-A-T can be applied one-handed to your own arm.[6]
One line on these pages matters more than any feature. The program warns that counterfeit tourniquets are common in online marketplaces and can fail under load, and says to buy from a licensed seller and look closer if the price or packaging seems off.[6]
Hemostatic dressings
These are gauze treated to help blood clot. The program accepts three, listed in no particular order:[7]
- QuikClot Bleeding Control Dressing, from Teleflex, a kaolin-treated gauze
- Celox Gauze, Z-Fold, from Celox Medical, coated with chitosan
- NuStat, from Beeken Biomedical, woven from cellulose and silica fibers, which the program says contains no animal or shellfish-derived material
Each is cleared by FDA through the 510(k) premarket process. The program is careful to add that clearance is not FDA approval or endorsement, and that cleared uses vary by product and package, so read the instructions for use.[7]
Hemostatic dressings carry expiration dates. Over time the clotting agent loses effectiveness, though the program says an expired one can still be used like ordinary gauze to pack a wound.[3]
Plain or hemostatic
The program says that packed correctly, plain gauze works, and that you need training to use a hemostatic dressing properly.[7] Its Basic kit uses plain gauze for that reason.[5] Hemostatic is an addition for places where help is far away and someone has trained with it, not a requirement.
What "FDA" on a label means
The program says FDA registration and listing do not amount to FDA approval or endorsement of a device,[6] and that no kit is "government approved" or "government certified," because no such designation exists. It suggests a closer look at any seller who claims one.[4]
What fails and why
The usual ways a kit comes up short
A copy of a real tourniquet
Counterfeits are common in online marketplaces and can fail under load, in the program's words.[6] A tourniquet that looks right in the package is not tested until someone pulls on it. Buy from a licensed seller.
A kit nobody has opened
Unfamiliar packaging, a tourniquet nobody has threaded, a strap nobody knows how to secure. The class is where those discoveries belong, and the program recommends refreshers after it.[3]
A dressing past its date
The clotting agent loses effectiveness over time.[3] The American College of Surgeons says to check kits yearly for expired or damaged supplies.[8]
A kit used once and never refilled
The American College of Surgeons says to replace used items right after an incident.[8] A kit that helped a neighbor last spring may be missing its tourniquet now.
A kit nobody can find
For buildings, the American College of Surgeons says to keep kits near AEDs or other first aid equipment, keep them visible, and list their locations in emergency plans.[8] At home the same logic holds: the same shelf as the first aid kit, and everyone knows which shelf.
A name that sounds official
The program says a kit that fails its checks is not a STOP THE BLEED® kit, whatever the name suggests.[4] "Trauma kit" or "government approved" on a listing tells you nothing about what is inside.
What to buy
Now that you know what to look for
The program does the hard part of this category for you. It names the kits, names the devices, and licenses the sellers. Your job is to check that what you buy matches.
How we handle buying links here: STOP THE BLEED® kits are sold only by licensed sellers, so the links in this section go to the program's own seller list and to the American Red Cross, and New World Survival earns nothing on them. If we publish comparisons for this category, any affiliate link in them will be disclosed there. Commission never decides a recommendation.
A kit
- Named STOP THE BLEED® Basic, Intermediate, or Advanced, with nothing added
- Sold by a company on the program's licensed list
- Labeled "Assembled by" with the company's name
- A tourniquet and any hemostatic dressing from the accepted lists
These are the program's own checks.[4]
A tourniquet on its own
- One of the four accepted models
- From a licensed seller or the maker
- The model you practiced on, or a class on the one you buy
- A second one if you want the Red Cross's backup step covered
Hemostatic gauze
- One of the three accepted dressings
- An expiration date you can read, written on the calendar
- Training with it, per the program
- Plain packing gauze is still a sound choice without that training
The licensed sellers on the program's list include the American Red Cross, the American College of Surgeons, Bound Tree Medical, and Zoll Medical, among others.[4] The program's equipment page carries the full list and a way to ask the program to confirm a seller or product. It says the program sells nothing itself and charges nothing to check.[4]
For a sense of cost, the American Red Cross store listed the SOFTT-W tourniquet at $30.99 and two STOP THE BLEED kits at $79.95 and $122.95 when we checked.[11] Its catalog names those kits "Personal" and "Professional" rather than Basic or Intermediate, so even a licensed seller's listing may not use the current names. When a name does not match, ask the seller which configuration it is, or ask the program.
After you buy
The skills around the kit
A bleeding control kit sits beside the rest of a household's first aid. These guides cover the skills and the supplies around it.
Life-Threatening Emergencies
Severe bleeding alongside the other emergencies where minutes matter.
First Aid Certification
How CPR, first aid, and bleeding control classes fit together, and how to keep the skills fresh.
Bleeding Control and Wound Care
The everyday cuts and punctures, and the signs a wound needs more care.
Building a First Aid Kit
What goes in the household kit that sits next to this one, and how to keep it stocked.
First Aid Kits Handbook
Choosing the everyday kit, the one you will open far more often.
Medical Preparedness
Medications, devices, records, and the household medical plan.
All comparisons
Every comparison, in one place
Each comparison we publish for bleeding control is listed here as it is finished. Until then, the program's accepted lists above are the shortlist.
Sources
- U.S. Department of Defense, STOP THE BLEED® program. Home page. Accessed October 8, 2026. dodstopthebleed.org
- U.S. Department of Defense, STOP THE BLEED® program. "About," including program history. Accessed October 8, 2026. dodstopthebleed.org
- U.S. Department of Defense, STOP THE BLEED® program. "Frequently Asked Questions." Accessed October 8, 2026. dodstopthebleed.org
- U.S. Department of Defense, STOP THE BLEED® program. "Equipment," including kit verification and the licensed seller list. Accessed October 8, 2026. dodstopthebleed.org
- U.S. Department of Defense, STOP THE BLEED® program. "Kits." Accessed October 8, 2026. dodstopthebleed.org
- U.S. Department of Defense, STOP THE BLEED® program. "Tourniquets." Accessed October 8, 2026. dodstopthebleed.org
- U.S. Department of Defense, STOP THE BLEED® program. "Hemostatic Dressings." Accessed October 8, 2026. dodstopthebleed.org
- American College of Surgeons. STOP THE BLEED® "FAQ." Accessed October 8, 2026. stopthebleed.org
- American Red Cross. "How to Apply a Tourniquet." Published November 27, 2024. Accessed October 8, 2026. redcross.org
- American Red Cross. "First Aid for Severe Bleeding Online" course page. Accessed October 8, 2026. redcross.org
- American Red Cross Store. "Bleeding Control" product listing, prices as listed on the access date. Accessed October 8, 2026. redcross.org
We re-check this guide every quarter as guidance and products change. The Weekly Readiness Brief is a quiet way to hear when it updates.