Kristen Cheser
On average, it only takes a person five minutes to bleed out completely.
Depending on where the person is, it could easily take more than five minutes for emergency responders to reach the person in need. At Stop the Bleed, a free event on Dec. 11, students can learn how to save a friend from dying of blood loss before it is too late.
“Every second matters,” said Epsilon Health Solutions LLC Director Jessica Lien. “You could be the difference between living and dying. A basic understanding is usually the difference between an emergency ending in tragedy or success.”
Stop the Bleed focuses on bystander training for emergency situations so the bystander can help in an emergency while waiting for the ambulance to arrive. Specifically, the event focuses on how to stop or lessen uncontrollable bleeding. The event will also cover what to do in an active shooter situation.
Stop the Bleed will also teach those who attend how to pack and dress an open wound, how to make tourniquets, how to use a defibrillator and different strategies to control hemorrhage.
“CPR is always another good skill to have to assist someone who isn’t breathing, especially with children who choke often. They can go from 0 to 60 really quickly,” Lien said.
Despite cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) not being taught at the event, Lien said she thinks it is another important skill everyone should have.
Stop the Bleed is a program provided by the Department of Homeland Security. There are multiple programs throughout the nation that aim to provide emergency care skills to people and encourage them to help injured people in order to prevent more deaths due to traumas.
The Department of Homeland Security also provides step by step instructions on how to apply a tourniquet online and also provides a place for anyone to find another Stop the Bleed event if someone is unable to attend the event Wed.
The event is free and anyone can sign up online up until the event. The Ivinson Memorial Hospital and Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho (WWAMI) Medical Education are collaborating to make the Stop the Bleed event which will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Stop the Bleed will be in the UW Health Sciences building in room 459.
Attending participants will receive a free Stop the Bleed kit.
