Farfield, N.J., Police Officer Gerald Veneziano was involved in a shooting that left him struck in the face, chest, arm and leg. One bullet hit an artery in his thigh. He could have bled to death.
"We located a heavy bleeding gunshot wound right above his leg," said Officer Michael Orr, who arrived first to help Veneziano.
In Orr's first-aid kit was something he had used as a Marine in Iraq: treated gauze that can stop bleeding.
QuikClot is gauze that has a blood-clotting agent embedded into its fibers to rapidly stop blood loss. ZMedica, the company that makes it, claims it can stop bleeding in less than three minutes.
"All the tests we've done before showed a 600 percent improvement in the time to hemostasis, in the time to actually clot and stop bleeding, than regular gauze or regular manual pressure," said Brian Herrman, ZMedica's CEO.
The product has been used by the U.S. military and now the company has donated 15,000 units of QuikClot to the Syrian American Medical Society to help victims of the violent clashes in Syria.
Veneziano said he would not be alive had it not been for the high-tech gauze.
"It saved my life," Veneziano said.
The gauze has become standard issue at several police departments across the nation.
