Ukrainian Soldier Survives 36 Days With Tourniquet on Injured Limb

A Ukrainian soldier identified only as 41-year-old “Alexander” was wounded in the right leg in mid-November during heavy fighting in Vovchansk, in the Kharkiv region. A medic applied a tourniquet that saved his life, little knowing that it would remain in place for more than a month, as evacuation under fire was not possible. It is usually recommended that tourniquets be applied for no more than two hours.

Thirty-six days (or 864 hours) later, he was eventually brought to a hospital in the city of Kharkiv, where he underwent an operation. While he lost part of his leg, the surgeons were amazed that he had survived at all and were full of praise for the paramedics who had looked after him in the field.

“If the tourniquet had not been applied or had been done incorrectly, the person would have died,” Vyacheslav Kurennoy, Deputy Head of the Medical Unit of the Military Medical Clinical Center of the Northern Region said.

He went on to say: “I see military training is becoming better. Gradually, our forces are being manned with those who have undergone basic training and understand what to do when they are wounded. The soldier is alive, but, unfortunately, part of his limb where the tourniquet had been applied was amputated.”

He went on to say that even the most experienced military surgeons are not aware of survival over such a long period, and such cases are not described in the literature.

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The same hospital had treated another soldier in November who had also been wounded in Vovchansk and was unable to be evacuated for 24 days.

52-year-old “Alex” who lost his arm during fighting in Vovchansk in October, takes a selfie prior to his injury. Photo: social media

“Alex,” 52, lost his arm during fighting in Vovchansk. After a tourniquet was applied, he spent more than three weeks sheltering in a basement with no way to evacuate before being rescued and taken to Kharkiv. At the time, the 582 hours he had spent with a tourniquet was hailed as a new “world record,” one the surgeons who treated him thought could never be broken.