Monday, October 22 Paulding County Hospital provided Stop the Bleed training to 63 members of the Wayne Trace School District. Both educators and administrators were participants in the program. Stop the Bleed is a program launched by the White House in 2015 to transfer battlefield knowledge of first aid to the public sector in response to civilian shootings and trauma. The program was launched with the singular concept, everybody has the capacity to help somebody. Trauma is the number three overall cause of death in the United States and accounts for more than 190,000 deaths per year. The experience of the armed forces has shown that immediately controlling bleeding has a significant impact on survival. The program is administered by the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland security.
A person can bleed to death in as little as six minutes. The course teaches bystanders to use pressure to stop bleeding. Pressure can be from a bare hand or hand over clothing or bandage. Bleeding that persists can be controlled by a tourniquet or two if one does not work. The participants also learned how to apply a chest seal in the event of a chest wound. Paulding County Hospital CEO Randy Ruge, RN presented the narrative part of the program. Ashley Smith, RN Director of Medical & Emergency Nursing and Naomi Nicely, Community Relations Coordinator worked with the attendees on proper application of tourniquets.
Paulding County Hospital is supplying the Wayne Trace School District with Stop the Bleed kits. Each kit will contain 2 combat tourniquets and ten trauma care packs. The packs contain a chest seal, gloves, medical tape, and five large trauma pads. The kits will be placed in all of the schools in the Wayne Trace district and Paulding Schools.
The kits and education have been offered to all schools in Paulding County. The hospital is making the program and kits available to larger businesses and churches in the county.
