North American Rescue
Greer, South Carolina, 1996 — the company behind the C-A-T tourniquet, and the loudest voice warning that counterfeit copies of it have reached responders and failed.
North American Rescue was founded in 1996 by Bob Castellani and has been owned by Henry Schein since March 2019, when the dental and medical distributor completed its acquisition of about 93 percent of the company. Its best-known product is the Combat Application Tourniquet, and the reason it belongs on a preparedness site rather than a weapons one is straightforward: bleeding control is the part of emergency medicine a bystander can actually perform. The single most important thing NAR publishes is a warning about its own product's imitators — counterfeit C-A-T units have reached responders and failed in use, and a US general exclusion order now helps Customs seize look-alikes at the border.
- 1996Founded in Greer, South Carolina by Bob Castellani
- March 2019Henry Schein completes its acquisition of about 93% of NAR
- Counterfeits failNAR's own warning — a general exclusion order backs Customs seizures
What we'd reach for
- C-A-T (Combat Application Tourniquet)NAR states the C-A-T is recommended by the Committee on Tactical Combat Casualty Care. Buy it from an authorised source — this is the product with the counterfeit problem.
- Bleeding control kitsTourniquet, gauze, gloves and a barrier in one package. Public-access versions exist for the same reason defibrillators do.
- Chest sealsOcclusive dressings for penetrating chest trauma.
- Hemostatic gauzeImpregnated dressings for wounds a tourniquet cannot address. Check expiry dates, which are shorter than people expect.
- Public access bleeding control stationsWall-mounted cabinets for workplaces and public buildings — the format that treats bleeding control as infrastructure.
- Training productsManikins and trainers. The equipment is only useful with training, and NAR sells both halves.