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Tom, I would have to respectfully disagree with a couple points. The RATS (for which RE Factor is a distributor) is pretty tough (for me, at least) to self-apply to an upper arm if the affected arm is intact and immobilized--you can quickly see this right now by trying to use your opposite hand to wrap any strap or cord around your upper arm while its hanging 'dead' (unless of course the lower part of your 'affected' arm is missing). If you can adduct your lower arm towards your upper arm, then the wrapping becomes much easier. At that point, you then have to focus on ensuring your wraps are tight enough to occlude arterial flow, there is relatively uniform constriction pressure across the wraps, and each of the wraps is nearly touching the previous wrap to ensure you avoid creating a ligature effect with any single wrap of the 1/2" wide band.
The CAT TQ is pretty easy to self-apply to upper arms and legs, if you set the TQ up 'pre-looped' ahead of time (which is really easy to do and quick to deploy). It only starts to get a little tricky if you have to un-thread the strap out of the single-pass buckle, wrap it around a limb, and then re-thread the strap through the buckle. While this situation is possible, its certainly not the norm.
The tourniquet being marketed by Recon Medical is an exact design rip off of the CAT Gen 7 TQ, with the exception of an added 'finger hole' near the end of the strap, and a metal windlass vs. the composite windlass on the CAT. I haven't been able to find any reference to where this product is made, but considering it's about half the cost of the CAT, I'm guessing its likely an overseas copy. It may be fine, made of quality materials and priced lower due to lower manufacturing costs, or it may be made with lower quality materials that could fail--save a buck, roll the dice. I have to wonder if CAT Resources is seeking legal action against Recon Medical.
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