In some cases, an injured person could bleed to death in three minutes while trauma professionals estimate it could take five to eight minutes for the arrival of paramedics to administer life-saving aid.
Rees-Jones Trauma Center at Parkland Memorial Hospital is now offering free classes to teach community members how to “Stop the Bleed.”
Stop the Bleed classes are intended for all ages and walks of life. The team at Parkland have recently taught a group of boy scouts how to stop bleeding.
Jorie Klein, RN, Director of Trauma Services explained that tragedy can happen anywhere and the classes could benefit anyone from bus drivers and motorcyclists to hunters and soccer moms.
"The reality is most of the time, outside of a hospital, the person that you probably are going to be caring for is your own family,” Klein said. “Whether you are traveling in the car, you’re on the back of a motorcycle, somebody’s working on a ladder up on your roof… it’s probably going to be somebody that you know. Who would not want to be able to take care of their own family?”
The class teaches several ways to stop bleeding including using a tourniquet, direct pressure and how to pack an injury.
“Identify the injury and if you see excessive bleeding, stop it,” Klein said. “You can use a tourniquet. There are commercial tourniquets, but you can do a tourniquet with [something] that’s around your neck, your belt, the sock that you have on.”
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Instructors encourage having a “Stop The Bleed” bag in your home, office and car. The bag includes:
- Tourniquets – 3 in each bag
- Hemostatic Gauze (Quikclot Combat Gauze) – 3 in each bag
- CPR mask, one way valve, EMT grade – 2 in each bag
- Blanket
- Bottles of water
- Flashlight/batteries
- Glow sticks
Sign up for free classes by emailing stopthebleed@phhs.org.
