A national program called Stop the Bleed is giving people the power to go from bystander to lifesaver in just minutes. The initiative teaches simple, hands-on techniques anyone can use to control severe bleeding in an emergency.
Kathi Hegranes with the Trauma Center at ThedaCare Neenah and the Fox Valley Regional Trauma Advisory Council says these skills could mean the difference between life and death before first responders arrive.
Injuries that lead to serious blood loss can happen anywhere, from farm fields to fishing boats.
“Many of our farmers are also hunters and fishermen,” Hegranes says. “They could be filleting a fish and have a knife slip, or any number of things, including a motor vehicle crash, using a chainsaw to clear a field.”
Stop the Bleed training focuses on three key steps known as the “three P’s”: pressure, packing, and tourniquet (pressure, again). Applying firm pressure is the first step in stopping blood flow. If that doesn’t work, the next step is packing the wound with gauze, a towel, or even a shirt. The final measure is applying a tourniquet to completely control the bleeding until emergency crews arrive.
Hegranes emphasizes that every second matters.
“If someone bleeds out, we can’t save them,” she said. “What we are trying to do is ensure that every person we come in contact with has at least a basic understanding of how to not only save their own life, but potentially save their life of a loved one or someone around them, so they can control that bleeding until those first responders arrive on scene and then they take over.”
Learn more: https://www.stopthebleed.org/
