The Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Newtown, Conn. on December 14, 2012 became a focal point for a new movement to begin in the United States.
Teresa Williams, who is a trauma registrar and outreach coordinator for IU Health, said the president put together a committee called the Hartford Consensus to see if any of those deaths were preventable. She said two things came out of that committee.
“They found that a lot of the deaths were preventable,” said Williams. “There were arm and leg wounds that could be stopped with direct pressure, wound packing and/or tourniquets. The next thing they had to do was see if the civilian people were willing to help out in an emergency situation because as good as our fire departments, our EMS and our police are, it takes time. By the time they make the sure the scene is safe and the time they got to the victims, a lot of them bleed to death unnecessarily because people didn’t know how to stop life-threatening bleeding.”
A total of 20 children ages six and seven died along with six adult staff members at Sandy Hook. Combine that with the recent shootings at The Pulse nightclub in Orlando and a country music concert in Las Vegas, the need to find a way to help out in these situations has become extremely critical.
Enter Stop the Bleed, which is being initiated nationwide in response to incidents of shootings and penetrating trauma. IU Health Frankfort Hospital is offering two free Stop the Bleed classes on Monday, October 23 from 1-2 p.m. and Thursday, October 26 from 6-7 p.m. Both classes will be in the IU Health Frankfort Hospital boardroom.
“Stop the Bleed is set up for civilian. It’s not set up basically for the medical provider,” said Williams. “It’s very simple. You’ll come to class. It’s an hour-long presentation. It’s has hands-on where we practice packing a mannequin that has wounds. You practice actually packing the wounds, applying direct pressure. You learn how to put a tourniquet on, where to put in on and why you’re putting it on.”
Williams said these classes is for all age groups, including teenagers.
“We’re putting it out there for the teenage kids,” said Williams. “They learn CPR and unfortunately in today’s world it’s very important they need to learn how to stop life-threatening bleeding.”
Williams said most people don’t think these kinds of things will happen in our community. However, this class is not just for mass shootings.
“Stop the Bleed and controlling life-threatening bleeding can be used at home,” said Williams. “You have chainsaw accidents, workshop accidents with table saws. It can be used in industry with industrial machines. It comes in handy for just basic knowledge.”
For more information about the Stop the Bleed classes, contact Williams at 765-838-5119 or by email at [email protected]. Class size is limited.