Why  do  we  mark  the  time  when  we  place  a  tourniquet?  Initially,  marking  that  time  on  the  tourniquet  allows  that  next  level  of  medical  care  to  know  when  that  tourniquet  was  placed  and  if  it's  safe  to  remove. So  a  lot  of  times  tourniquets  are  placed  very  hastily  in  an  emergency  situation.  As  soon  as  you  place  a  tourniquet,  you're  cutting  off  all  blood  flow  to  that  extremity.  As  you  do  that,  we  have  muscle  tissue  that  dying  off  and  you're  going  to  start  building  toxins  up.  If  it's  been  on  more  than  six  hours,  we're  going  to  leave  it  on  and  let  that  next  level  of  care  deal  with  taking  off  that  tourniquet.  If  it's  been  within  a  couple  of  hours  and  that  first  responder  shows  up,  they  may  take  a  look  at  that  wound  and  say  that  one  really  didn't  need  a  tourniquet  and  they're  able  to  successfully  convert  that  tourniquet  in  the  proper  amount  of  time.