On October 18, Stop The Bleed club held a hands-on workshop on how to recognize and respond to emergency bleeding. A Trauma Prevention and Outreach Coordinator gave a presentation and aided students in practicing life-saving techniques.
At the end of the presentation, students practiced what to do on a fake thigh and stuffed “wounds” with gauze and applied pressure. Students also practiced using a tourniquet, a device placed two to three inches above a wound to stop the bleeding.
Jackson-Reed’s Stop The Bleed club aims to educate the student body about the proper response to life-threatening bleeding, one of the leading preventable causes of death in the U.S.
Stop The Bleed was founded by The American College of Surgeons Committee On Trauma to educate nonmedical professionals on how to respond to emergency bleeding. “The course was created to help people feel empowered to take action when someone is experiencing life-threatening bleeding”, JJ Current said. Current is an experienced trainer with the Trauma Administration, and was the one who gave the presentation to JR students.
Current has given presentations at Jackson-Reed twice before, in the spring of 2023 and in the spring of 2022.
Junior and Biomed student Ryan Hunchinson joined Stop the Bleed last year and enjoyed the lessons about traumatic blood loss. He decided to go more in depth because of how well, in his opinion, the club teaches students to respond. “They emphasize the importance of making sure your safety comes first in any dangerous situation before you help others. Also, uncontrolled bleeding is the leading cause of preventable death after injury, so this club can help save many lives,” Hutchinson said. One of the club leaders echoed the sentiment, saying, “The ability to give first aid to someone is crucial to everyone who is able to do it.” This leader is teaching students strategies to aid students in helping others and hopes more students will join the club.
Stop The Bleed club is now learning the Massive hemorrhage, Airway, Respiratory, Circulation and Hypothermia (MARCH) algorithm to treat traumatic injuries. A new group of students will meet on November 29th to learn both MARCH algorithm and the Tactical Emergency Casualty Care (TECC) algorithm led by Bystriakov.
