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#AskPracMed – Should I remove my glove if my hand is bleeding?

Yes — always remove clothing, gloves, and footwear to properly assess a wound. If you can’t see what’s happening, you can’t make a good decision about what intervention is needed.

A penetrating injury to the foot, for example, could have hit a significant vascular structure and be bleeding heavily inside the boot with nothing visible on the outside.

Remove everything covering the injury, assess the wound properly, and then apply the right level of intervention. Guessing gets people into trouble.

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Picture of Simon Carkeek

Simon Carkeek

Simon is a former NZDF Recon Operator and Patrol Commander with over a decade of service, including two deployments to Afghanistan, Solomon Islands peacekeeping, and humanitarian and disaster relief operations in Indonesia following the 2004 tsunami. Domestically, he responded to the Christchurch earthquakes and the Scotts Ferry floods. After service, Simon spent nearly five years in private contracting across Asia Pacific and the Middle East — working as a PSD Team Medic, Site Security Manager, and setting up medical clinics in austere environments where the nearest hospital was a long way away. He's a former action guy and a self-described meatball medic. He founded PracMed NZ because most first aid training wasn't preparing people for real emergencies. It still isn't, everywhere else.