ERIE – UPMC Hamot and the UPMC Trauma Care System recently introduced the regional STOP THE BLEED initiative.
Launched by the White House in the fall of 2015 and sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense and the American College of Surgeons, the major objective of STOP THE BLEED is to teach and empower the lay public using simple techniques to stop bleeding that might otherwise prove fatal — “ anyone can save a life”. The other goal is to make bleeding control kits as familiar and available as Automatic External Defibrillators (AED). Bleeding Control Kits are prepackaged bags containing combat tourniquets, hemostatic gauze, rubber gloves, compression bandages, and various other supplies used to control serious bleeding.
According to organizers, the “initiative was born out of the unfortunate increase in intentional mass injury events in our nation (including public schools), active shooter or terrorist attacks. The most frequent cause of preventable death from injury is massive blood loss; which can happen within minutes. Unfortunately, in many of these events, the EMS response is delayed by security concerns, making bystander aid critically important.”
As part of the regional initiative, training is offered free-of-charge, in a 90-minute, hands-on session where nonmedical providers learn how to stop bleeding with direct pressure and wound packing as well as the application of a tourniquet to stop bleeding from an extremity.
This local effort, led by UPMC, which has donated $1.3 million toward this campaign, will place a bleeding control kit in every public school building and a tourniquet on the belt of every law enforcement officer in Western Pennsylvania. Partners include the Copeland Regional Trauma Council; whose membership includes all trauma centers in Western Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, and Hamot Health Foundation.
For more information, contact UPMC Hamot’s Trauma Services Training Manager Sarah L. Mattocks, MSN, RN, CRNP, TCRM at UPMC Hamot at 814/877-5687.
