A 22-year-old student has won a prestigious engineering award after designing a potentially life-saving device for knife wounds.
Joseph Bentley has won this year’s UK James Dyson Award for React device.
The device, which stands for Rapid Emergency Actuating Tamponade, aims to help police treat knife wounds while waiting for medical assistance to arrive.
Stab victims can bleed to death in just five minutes, so the priority for emergency personnel is to stop excessive blood loss.
“Knife crime is a topic that is personal to me, as two of my friends were victims of knife related incidents,” the product design graduate from Witham said.
Read more >> Essex student designs lifesaving device for stab victims
“Thankfully both incidents were not fatal, but this is often not the case for so many others.
“Seeing the profound effect that it had on my friends and their families urged me to try and create a solution that could help others in the future.”
The tool inflates an implantable medical-grade silicone balloon tamponade into the wound tract, effectively filling the cavity and preventing internal bleeding.
Mr Bentley, who studied at Colchester Royal Grammar School, said wound management techniques, such as tightly packing with gauze, can be slow, technical, and extremely painful for the victim.
He claims his prototype could potentially be in place and stop haemorrhage in under a minute, and estimates it could save hundreds of lives a year.
A&E doctor and former Love Island contestant Dr Alex George, said: “Sadly, knife crime is on the rise and Joseph’s React concept could be an impressive solution to help first responders, police officers, and medical professionals deal with these types of injuries, should it pass its medical trials.
“Time is of the essence in treating these types of injuries and the React system could help buy some valuable time.”
Joseph won £2,000 towards developing his concept as part of the national prize and will progress to the international stage of the James Dyson Award 2021.
“I was thrilled when I found out I’d won the national James Dyson Award,” Joseph added.
“This prestigious endorsement confirms the React concept could have real world benefits and a positive impact on society.
“Although medical device testing takes a long time, I’m looking forward to using the prize money to develop my innovation further and hopefully see the device in the hands of first responders saving lives.”
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