50+ Uses of a Triangular Bandage

• To make a sling and swathe
• It’s cotton, right? Fire starter!
• Toilet paper (c’mon, you know you’d use it in a pinch!)
• Packing a wound while applying well-aimed direct pressure
• Tie a splint to an extremity
• Secure a pressure dressing
• Sling and swath for orthopedic injuries
• Secure and dress an abdominal evisceration
• Secure an IV bag to the casualty
• Create a pressure infuser for IV/IO application
• Secure patient’s arms and legs during movement and extraction
• Used to aid the creation of a traction splint for a femur fracture
• Improvised tourniquet using windlass
• Endotracheal tube tie
• Eye cover or bandage to protect patient’s eye against dust and debris
• Secure IV catheter and tubing once established
• Secure catheter placed after needle thoracotomy for tension pneumothorax
• Secure and stabilize a flail chest
• Collection bag for patient’s belongings
• Folded, padding for head on hard surface
• Two wrapped together creates a donut roll for depressed skull area
• Stabilize an impaled object
• B-U-F-F finger splint
• Secure your triage card to the patient
• Cover for amputated extremity stump
• Moistened and then used for a respiratory filter during rapid extraction from toxic exposure
• Folded, bite block when ET tube is in place
• Secure cold or hot pact to casualty
• Wrapped around a sprained or strained joint for added support
• Small torn pieces placed in ears to protect against constant load noise
• Small torn pieces used as gauze for dental abscess
• Subdue medic’s exam light
• Secure wound avulsion in place
• Cover burn wound site
• Head wrap to help slow casualty hypothermia
• Moistened and used to wrap or protect salvageable amputated body part
• Narrow torn strip wrapped around scalpel blade for surgical cricothyroidotomy
• Hang IV bag from elevated fixed object
• Tie fentanyl “lollipop” to patient’s finger
• Tied to fixed elevated object and extremity for sustained elevation
• Saturated with water, it can be used to cool an overheated patient
• Clean and prep chest for occlusive dressing application
• Corner of material for removal of debris in eye
• Packing for nosebleed
• Secure or restrain combative casualty
• Strap repair
• Ties for improvised litter
• Protect yourself from vomitus during CPR (if you don’t have a mask)
• Wind and dust bandanna
• Padding for splints
• Clavicle splint
• Shade from a hot sun
• Placed over a water bottle, it can serve as a filter (just the big stuff though, obviously)
• When unraveled, attach it to a fishhook or safety pin to a little fishing

Okay, that should get you started. Got any more?!