UK graduate invents REACT device to help reduce deaths from knife crime

This year’s UK national James Dyson Award winner attempts to solve the problem of blood loss associated with knife crime and stab wounds, which can result in death.  

Knife crime is an issue in many countries around the world and last year, there were around 46,000 offences involving a knife or sharp instrument in England and Wales, which is the highest number of offences since the year ending March 2011¹. Many of these incidents can result in medical assistance being required, and last year there was 54 per cent increase in admissions to hospitals in England for attacks by sharp objects².

Joseph Bentley, aged 22 from Essex, is a recent graduate of Product Design and Technology at Loughborough University. He identified that the average wait time for an ambulance is currently just over eight minutes³, yet it can only take five minutes for someone to bleed to death⁴. Joseph set out on a mission to design a device that could help first responders stem the bleeding. According to his research, the police are often the first trained responders at the scene, but they do not currently have the rapid and accessible tools required to prevent blood loss.

The invention

The REACT device (which stands for Rapid Emergency Actuating Tamponade) aims to reduce catastrophic blood loss from a knife wound. The current advice for treating stab wounds is to never remove the knife object from the wound if it is still in place⁵. This is because the object is applying internal pressure to the wound site whilst also filling the cavity and preventing internal bleeding⁵. Joseph’s concept is based on the same principle, the implantable medical-grade silicone balloon tamponade would be inserted into the wound tract by a first responder. The actuator device is connected to the tamponade valve, and the user selects the wound location on the device interface. Squeezing the trigger on the actuator starts the automated inflation sequence, and the tamponade is inflated to a defined pressure based on the wound location to try and stem the bleeding.

During the early research and development phases, Joseph discovered that current wound management techniques like wound packing are sometimes used by paramedics to prevent bleeding from stab wounds⁶. This process involves tightly packing a wound with gauze, which will help to apply pressure internally to the site. According to Joseph, the process can be slow, technical, and extremely painful to the victim, but has in many cases proven to be successful in quickly stopping bleeding from knife wounds.

Despite this, the technique may not be suitable for wounds in cavities like the abdomen, which is the most common area for knife wounds to appear following a knife attack⁷. During his prototyping, Joseph found that the simple application and automated inflation procedure of the REACT system could be a more effective method for first responders compared to traditional methods. He claims his prototype Tamponade could potentially be in place and stopping haemorrhage in under a minute, which Joseph estimates could save hundreds of lives a year.

This year marked the 17th year of the James Dyson Award, and the 17th year of championing ground-breaking concepts in engineering and design. This year, the award has also seen its highest number of entrants in the Award’s history across all 27 participating nations.

Winning the national leg of the James Dyson Award will inject £2,000 into Joseph’s project. He aims to commercialise his invention in the coming years, using the award money for further research and official medical testing into how the REACT invention can become a global solution to knife wounds and hopefully save lives. 

REACT will progress to the international stage of the James Dyson Award. In the interim, Joseph is working on securing a patent for this winning design, as well as progressing his concept further with the hope of one day fully commercialising the design.  The International shortlist will be announced on 13^th October 2021 and the International winners on 17^th November 2021. The International winner receives a prize of £30,000, plus £5,000 for their university, and the Sustainability winner also receives a prize of £30,000.