Recently I responded to a shooting event, where a subject was shot several times, one of the projectiles entered a lower extremity and that caused a life threatening bleed. The first officer attempted to apply one of our issued TacMed Solutions SOF-T Wide Tourniquets only to have it fail.
The red circled area, the "tooth" bent backwards opening up, rendering the TQ ineffective. While this is not something which happens often, it is known to occur from time to time. I have had it occur on me once early on when the D-link TQ's came out from TacMed Solutions, I believe it was before I began posting here. I know that TacMed has since changed their version several times and I have used SOF-T Wide TQ's successfully numerous times saving people from bleeding out.
Another officer was able to apply his SOF-T effectively saving the subject from bleeding out and getting him to higher care.
I know that some may believe it may have been because it was a counterfeit or something of that nature, I do not know if that is possible as they are bought via contract direct from either TacMed or through a distributor stateside. We all have one from the same batch and while I have seen/heard many failures it does happen.
I have since switched to Ratching Medical Tourniquets, as I can train with them and apply them to my EDC without having to migrate through various issues.
I will be posting a write up on the RMT's soon, I am compiling data and info. I would like to be able to use one in the field effectively before posting about it, so that may need to wait until the weather gets warmer.