A Cool Medical Device for Your Game

     I came upon this article "College Student Invents Gel that Halts Bleeding" today while doing some reading on a higher education blog.  This is impressive, not only because of the results the inventor is getting, but because he is not even 21 years old yet. I have no idea if or when this substance will be commercially available in real life, but in a role playing game, whether science fiction (like Traveller) or modern (like Spycraft) there's no reason for it to not exist. 

     My first thoughts on how to apply the gel, from a rules/mechanics perspective: application of the gel stops bleeding (no medical skill required), so it halts hit point/vitality/wound level losses due to bleeding. The gel may even add back a small amount (~1 h.p.). In games with descriptive instead of quantitative measures of injury, use of the gel can add a bonus to any later attempts at healing, or shorten recovery periods as the body does not have to replace as much blood volume as it might have otherwise. The gel may also lower the chance for subsequent infection. 
    
 I think this gel should be on the expensive side, or it comes in one-use quantities, so that the system's damage & healing rules are not unbalanced. This gel is not "magical healing" but a helpful on-the-spot expedient when more competent medical care is not available.