Military-grade smart tourniquets to potentially save lives on local beaches

Lake Macquarie City Council lifeguards will be better equipped to deal with life-threatening incidents this summer after introducing electronic smart tourniquets across its four beaches.

Lake Macquarie is the first council in Australia to adopt the TAK710 tourniquets, which were developed by the Israeli military and are used by police, paramedics and defence forces to stem blood loss.

From Saturday, lifeguards at Redhead, Blacksmiths, Caves Beach and Catherine Hill Bay will be equipped with the smart tourniquets to begin what's expected to be another bumper summer season in Lake Macquarie.

The advantage of the e-tourniquet is it can be applied within 10 seconds with one hand, and it will adjust itself to the blood pressure of the patient.

Former Westpac Rescue Helicopter doctor Adrian Cohen specialises in trauma injuries and visited Caves Beach on Thursday to help train lifeguards.

Dr Cohen said the e-tourniquet could be crucial in saving the life of somebody mauled by a shark.

"You don't want to have that cognitive overload in a life-threatening situation," Dr Cohen said.

"You want to be able to do something really simple and effective. And the Smart Tourniquet does all the hard work for you.

"It's got four steps: you clip it on, you pull it tight, you pull a safety pin, and you press one button.

"It then constricts above the blood pressure of that person, so the bleeding stops. And you've done the most important thing you can do to save that person's life."

Unlike regular tourniquets, which are already widely used by lifeguards, the TAK710 records vital information on its circuit board for medical staff once the patient has been removed from the beach.

"A circumstance where other tourniquets might fail, this one will re-tighten," Dr Cohen said.

"A timer on the device starts to tell the doctors in the hospital how long it's been on, because you can't just have a tourniquet on for an indefinite period of time.

"If the limb is viable, you will soon make it not viable if you deprive it of the rest of the blood. So, it's got to be on for ideally less than two hours.

"This device has some clever features, too, where the surgeon in a hospital can decrease the pressure a little bit in a controlled fashion to see where the bleeding spot is."

The most recent shark attack at a Lake Macquarie beach happened in January 2012, when a then 44-year-old surfer, Glen Folkard, suffered serious injuries to his torso and upper leg.

In 2021, 58-year-old marine scientist, Rick Burbury, was bitten on the arm by a shark in the shallows at Yarrawonga Park on the western side of Lake Macquarie.

"That's the only time we've had to deal with a tourniquet," the council's team leader of beach lifeguards, Hayden Copping, said of the 2012 attack.

"But it's not something that we're going to be naive enough to say that we won't use it, so that's why we're moving forward with it [the e-tourniquet]."

Mr Copping said the smart tourniquet's use extended beyond shark attacks.

"If it's a damaged artery, absolutely," he said. "So, if there's a major bleed, we will use one, given it's on the extremities.

"Someone could fall off the rocks here; they could be run over in the car park. There are so many different things that happen as a beach lifeguard.

"As much as we'd love to say that we just watch the flags and deal with the swimmers, there are so many different hazards around the beaches that could happen."

On Thursday, council lifeguards continued their off-season training in preparation for the start of the 2026-27 season on Saturday.

Mr Copping said there were 50 council lifeguards on the books.

"We've probably estimated to see over a million beachgoers again this season," he said.

"Obviously, we've had some hot weather leading up to the season, and always people are looking for us, and we're excited, and we'll be right through until the end of April, so big seven months on our hands."