Haemorrhage means bleeding. It is the name used to describe blood loss. It can refer to blood loss inside the body, called internal or to blood loss outside of the body, called external bleeding.

Blood loss can occur in almost any area of the body. Internal bleeding occurs when blood leaks out through a damaged blood vessel or organ. External bleeding happens when blood exits through a break in the skin.

The common causes of bleeding:

Bleeding is a common symptom. A variety of incidents or conditions can cause bleeding. Possible causes include:

Traumatic bleeding

Bleeding due to injury is called traumatic bleeding. Traumatic injuries vary in their severity.Common types of traumatic injury include:

Abrasions(scrapes) that don’t penetrate too far below the skin

hematoma or Bruises

lacerations (cuts)

puncture wounds from items like needles, nails, or knives

crushing injuries

gunshot wounds

Medical conditions

There are also some medical conditions that can cause bleeding. Bleeding due to a medical condition is less common than traumatic bleeding.

Conditions that can cause bleeding include:

Hemophilia

Leukemia

Liver diseases

Menorhagia, heavy or prolonged menstrual bleeding, like what’s sometimes seen in endometriosis

Thrombocytopenia, low blood platelet count

Von Wille brand disease

Vit K disease

Brain trauma

Colon Diverticulosis

Lung Diseases

Acute Bronchitis

Medicines

Some medicines and certain treatments can increase your chances of bleeding, or even cause bleeding. Your doctor will warn you about this when they first prescribe the therapy. And they’ll tell you what to do if bleeding occurs.

Medications that may be responsible for bleeding include:

Blood Thinners

Antibiotics, when used on a long-term basis

Radiation Therapy

Aspirin and other NSAIDs

When is Bleeding a sign of Emergency?

If bleeding is severe, seek help immediately. You should seek emergency help if you suspect internal bleeding. This can become life-threatening.

People who have bleeding disorders or take blood thinners should also seek emergency help to stop bleeding.

Seek medical help if:

The person has gone into shock or has a fever.

The bleeding cannot be controlled using pressure

The wound requires a tourniquet

The bleeding was caused by a serious injury

The wound may need stitches to stop bleeding

Foreign objects are stuck inside the wound

The wound appears to be infected, such as swelling or leaking a whitish-yellow or brown pus, or has redness

The injury occurred due to a bite from an animal or human.

When you call for help, emergency services will tell you what to do and when they’ll arrive.

In most cases, emergency services will tell you to continue to put pressure on the wound and keep reassuring the person who’s bleeding. You may also be told to lay the person down to reduce their risk of fainting.

How is bleeding treated?

A person can bleed to death in 5 minutes. Bystanders may be able to save a life before emergency personnel can arrive.

There is a national campaign called “Stop the bleed” to teach anyone how to stop the bleeding in European countries. People in mass casualty events have died from blood loss even when their wounds shouldn’t have been fatal.

First aid for traumatic bleeding

It’s possible to treat external traumatic bleeding. Seek emergency help if the person is having any of the emergency signs listed above and if you need help to stop the bleeding.

The person who’s bleeding should try to remain calm to keep their heart rate and blood pressure controlled. Either heart rate or blood pressure being too high will increase the speed of bleeding.

Lay the person down as soon as possible to reduce the risk of fainting, and try to elevate the area that’s bleeding.

Remove loose debris and foreign particles from the wound. Leave large items such as knives, arrows, or weapons where they are. Removing these objects can cause further harm and will likely increase the bleeding. In this case, use bandages and pads to keep the object in place and absorb the bleeding.

Use the following to put pressure onto the wound:

a clean cloth

bandages

clothing

your hands (after applying protective gloves)

Maintain medium pressure until the bleeding has slowed and stops.

Do not:

Remove the cloth when bleeding stops. Use an adhesive tape or clothing to wrap around the dressing and hold it in place. Then place a cold pack over the wound.

Look at the wound to see if bleeding has stopped. This can disturb the wound and cause it to begin bleeding again.

Remove the cloth from the wound, even if blood seeps through the material. Add more material on top, and continue the pressure.

Move anyone with an injury to the head, neck, back, or leg

Apply pressure to an eye injury

Use tourniquets only as a last resort. An experienced person should apply the tourniquet. To apply a tourniquet, follow these steps:

1. Identify where to place the tourniquet. Apply it to a limb between the heart and the bleeding.
2. Make the tourniquet using bandages, if possible. Wrap them around the limb and tie a half knot. Ensure there is enough room to tie another knot with the loose ends.
3. Place a stick or rod between the two knots.
4. Twist the stick to tighten the bandage.
5. Secure the tourniquet in place with tape or cloth.
6. Check the tourniquet at least every 10 minutes. If the bleeding slows enough to be controlled with pressure, release the tourniquet and apply direct pressure instead.

Signs of emergency:

You will need emergency medical care if:

bleeding is caused by a serious injury

bleeding can’t be controlled

bleeding is internal

Paramedics will attempt to control the bleeding before rushing you to the hospital. In some cases, care might be given at home or while on a stretcher. The treatment required will depend on the cause of the bleeding.

In rare cases, surgery may be required to stop bleeding.

Some of the haemorrhages can be treated, managed and controlled by Homoeopathic medicines

Carbo veg – continuous passive hemorrhage, patient wants to be fanned; skin cool and bluish, pulse rapid and weak’ hemorrhages of a low type, blood changed in its composition, dark and rather fluid; lack of animal heat; anguish of heart.

Aconite – Acute haemorrhages call for Aconite when there is anxiety and fever, and a profuse bright red flow. Millefolium has the same bright red flow, but no anxiety or fever, and this remedy is most useful in active hemorrhages from the nose, lungs, or bowels of mechanical origin; epistaxis. It is a more active haemorrhage than that requiring Hamamelis. It also corresponds to haemorrhages in typhoid fever with tympanitis.

Ferrum – homeopathic medicine for haemorrhage of bright red blood, often mixed with coagula, associated with a great deal of flushing, rapid and a little labored breathing, pulse increased in frequency and strength.  After severe loss of blood; pale, bloated appearance, skin cool and pitting on pressure, particularly about joints.

Bovista – Bovista produces a relaxation of the entire capillary system which, of course, favors haemorrhage. It is, therefore, useful in epistaxis, and in uterine haemorrhage when the uterus is engorged; it flows between the menstrual periods from any little over-exertion. Farrington gives as characteristic that the flow occurs chiefly or only at night or early in the morning. The surface of the body is puffy

Lachesis – homeopathic medicine for haemorrhage from uterus, bowels, nose, stomach, lungs, or at the bottom of the ulcer; always when blood can be discerned like black straws as a sediment; often used in typhoid when hemorrhage occurs.

Phosphorous – blood-spitting with dry, tight, fatiguing cough, inter mixed with expectoration of mucus. Profuse hemorrhages, pouring out freely, then ceasing for some time, or the scanty discharge alternates with the profuse one, causing anemia and great debility.

Sulphuric acid – blood dark and profuse from lungs, especially in consumptives and broken-down constitutions, during or after adynamic diseases, from scorbutic or alcoholic affections.

Crot. H. – haemorrhagic diathesis, hemorrhage from every orifice, from nose, mouth, ears, anus, vagina, uterus, bowels, lungs, and from all mucus membranes. Intraocular hemorrhage; all discharges are bloody, even sweat and saliva are bloody.

Purpura haemorrhagica, comes on suddenly, from all orifices, skin, nails and gums. Blood is dark, fluid and non coaguable; hemorrhage occurring in typical zymotic disease.

Ammonium Carb – Haemorrhagic diathesis, bleeding of black, fluid blood, that will not coagulate. The blood is dark, acrid showing that great disturbance is taking place in circulation. Degeneration of red blood corpuscles; bleeding from the nose, the uterus, the bladder and the bowels; nose bleed when washing the face in the morning,

Haemorrhagic diathesis in weak, anaemic and delicate women who must have the smelling bottle continually at hand who catch cold easily in winters. Complaints are mainly right sided.

Arnica Montana – generally the first choice for bleeding caused by an injury, especially when shock Is associated with the bleeding. The body parts feel bruised, arnica is often used for a nosebleed in a growing child. Often, this is the first remedy given for bleeding that results from soft tissue damage of any body part.

China – useful for bleeding characterized by dark, clotted blood from any orifice of the body, there is ringing in the ears and the feeling that the person will faint. The person wants to be fanned. This problem is often associated with bleeding after childbirth.

Kali Mur – useful for bleeding when the blood tends to be thick, clotted, and often mixed with mucus. Common symptoms include vomiting of dark, clotted blood from the stomach and nosebleeds that get worse in the afternoon.

Veratrum album – homeopathic medicine for haemorrhage usually associated with intestinal hemorrhage, especially when there is profuse diarrhoea that contains blood.

Secale cor – This remedy corresponds to passive, painless, dark, offensive haemorrhages in thin scrawny women with formication and tingling in the limbs , surface of body cold and desire to be uncovered. It is characterized by slow oozing, dark, thin and persistent and worse from motion.

Belladonna – loss of bright red blood occurs which clots easily. Head is hot and face is red.

Hamamelis – Hamamelis is one of the best remedies for uterine haemorrhages generally, and clinical experience has abundantly verified its use, not only here, but in haemorrhages from any parts of the body, especially from the lungs, where it is of great value. It corresponds best to a passive venous haemorrhage, being here certainly one of our most efficacious remedies. It is useful in epistaxis, with tension and pressure in the glabella.

Trillium – There is no better remedy in active and passive haemorrhages than Trillium.It excels Sabina, Secale and Hamamelis. Cartier advises its use in nosebleed. It is especially suitable for bright red or dark and clotted flow in women who flow after every labor. There is a faint feeling at the epigastrium, coldness of the extremities and feeble pulse. Acute haemorrhages, haemorrhages from fibroids or after violent exertions. The tincture on cotton applied to the part is most useful to arrest bleeding from the teeth, or for epistaxis, especially epistaxis in growing children. The characteristic in uterine haemorrhages is a sensations as if the thighs would separate, relieved by a tight bandage around the body.

Sabina – Bright red clotted flow, worse from motion, is characteristic of Sabina, with pains extending from the pubes to the sacrum and down the thighs. It is especially useful in protracted uterine haemorrhages and after abortion or parturition. These are painful labor-like drawing pains in the abdomen. Erigeron is similar, but associated with irritation of the bladder and rectum, the flow comes in fits and starts, a sudden gush, then a stop; a lumpy dark flow. Some physicians consider Erigeron almost specific in all forms of haemorrhage. Exhausting attacks of haemorrhages at the menopause are often checked by Erigeron. After miscarriage it is also of great use, here the haemorrhages is bright red in color.

Note: Homoeopathic medicines are indicative.Self prescription is harmful. Consult a homoeopathic doctor for any kind of symptoms.