By Laura Gunderson
The Oregonian (Portland, Oregon)
Copyright 2006 The Oregonian
Medical staff in hospitals, ambulances and fire departments nationwide soon could reach for Oregon-made bandages that the military has used on wounded soldiers for several years.
HemCon Inc. of Tigard has expanded production of its original 4-by-4-inch bandages, which are designed to seal wounds and clot blood in minutes, to include smaller 2-by-2- and 2-by-4-inch bandages.
“These (bandages) are designed for gunshot wounds, lacerations and wounds that a civilian emergency medical professional is more likely to see than from shrapnel or an IED,” said Staci McAdams, the four-year-old biotech firm’s vice president of marketing.
HemCon is researching an even smaller bandage that could show up on drugstore shelves later this year, McAdams said.
Made of shrimp shells, the bandages quickly became an Army staple in Afghanistan and Iraq for their ability to stop hemorrhaging, which military officials say makes up about half of fatalities.
McAdams said that the 66-employee company tripled the size of its manufacturing plant last year and that it is filling all its military orders. The expansion also allowed HemCon to jump into further research and production for civilian markets, she said.
In a recent news report, soldiers had complained that they didn’t have enough of the HemCon bandages. Army officials have said they have the bandages but struggle with bottlenecks in distribution.