Blood loss is among
the most common causes of preventable death following a traumatic injury,
simply because it can happen so fast.
Consider: the
victim of a gunshot wound can bleed out--depending on the location of the
wound and caliber of weapon--in under three minutes, a perilously short
window of time for EMS to respond to the scene, locate the victim, and begin
first aid.
Traumatic injuries,
however, can happen anywhere: on the road, at a work site, in a machine
shop, even at home.
That’s why, on June
21, upwards of 100 members of the Duneland School Corporation’s custodial
and maintenance staff received a 90-minute tutorial entitled “Stop the
Bleed” in the School Board meeting room of the administration building.
The point of the
hands-on course: to give civilian bystanders--who are very often at a scene
before it becomes a scene, and well before the arrival of
first-responders--the skills and tools needed to stop uncontrolled traumatic
bleeding.
Michael Kellems,
manager of safety and security for the Duneland Schools, took the course
himself earlier this spring, along with Chesterton Fire Chief John Jarka,
and Kellems returned convinced of the value of offering the tutorial to as
many staffers and faculty as would be willing to take it.
“Stop the Bleed
training has proven invaluable when treating injuries that can claim a
person’s life,” Kellems told the Chesterton Tribune. “In an
emergency, seconds count and when you’re dealing with a severe bleed,
utilizing what was learned will make a difference.”
“Unfortunately,
while we tend to focus on active shooter situations in our schools, in
reality severe bleeding injuries can by caused by anything, anywhere, at any
time,” Kellems added. “Stop the Bleed training gives our staff the tools
they need to come to the aid of a student, a staff member, or even
themselves.”
So there Kellems
was, wondering how best to introduce a Stop the Bleed course in the schools,
when--in the fortuitous way things sometimes happen--he got a call from Tony
Emanuele, CHS Class of 2005, currently a federal law enforcement officer in
Washington, D.C., and a partner in Medicine in Bad Places, a tactical
medical consulting company. The reason for his call to Kellems: Emanuele
wanted to donate a Stop the Bleed course to Duneland Schools employees.
“After the recent
school shootings, I got tired of reading all the media reports and I decided
I wanted to do something about it,” Emanuele said. “I figured, a good place
to start would be at my former high school.”
Kellems was
delighted to accept Emanuele’s offer and arrangements were made to cycle
five groups of staff through the course over an eight-hour day, with a
promise from Emanuele to return in the fall and teach it to faculty.
The Course
Joining Emanuele as
instructors last week were Chesterton Police Cpl. Jamie Copollo, a certified
EMT; Todd Konradi, a firefighter and paramedic who serves on the Porter
County SWAT Team; and Michele Runions, an ER nurse who also serves on the
SWAT Team.
Together the four
used limbs fabricated by Konradi from swimming pool noodles and duct tape to
teach the proper application of a tourniquet; and a high-end device
simulating a junction wound--a puncture or laceration, for instance, in the
neck, shoulder, or groin--to demonstrate the direct-pressure technique.
In fact there’s no
great secret to stopping the bleed. “You can learn how to put on a
tourniquet in less than 30 seconds,” Runions said. “You can learn how to use
direct pressure in less than 10 seconds. That’s what’s going to save lives,
in minutes.”
No tourniquet
available or no materials to improvise one? No problem: direct pressure is
the comprehensive treatment for uncontrolled traumatic bleeding, Konradi
said. “It’s the one thing you can do without equipment. And it can stop
almost all fixable bleeding.”
The technique is
simple enough even for a Tribune reporter to master: first pack the
wound--ideally with gauze treated with QuikClot, a commercially produced
hemostatic agent--and pack it tight, like “concrete,” Runions said; then use
the heels of both hands to apply pressure to the wound, really lean into it,
lock the elbows and push, hard.
There’s one other
thing, Runions emphasized: at the scene of a traumatic injury--especially
with multiple casualties--a Good Samaritan bystander “should use all
available resources” to render first aid. A tee-shirt or handkerchief to
pack wounds, if there’s no gauze. A belt or length of rope or paracord to
fashion a tourniquet. And “other people, the folks standing around watching,
to help,” she said.
Stop the Bleed Kits
In addition to the
course itself, which Emanuele is donating to the Duneland Schools free of
charge--usual cost: $49 per person--his company, Medicine in Bad Places, is
also donating a $750 wall-mounted Stop the Bleed station, to be installed
next to an AED station at CHS.
Each station is
stocked with eight individually wrapped kits containing the following: one
combat application tourniquet, one QuikClot hemostatic dressing, one
emergency trauma dressing, a pair of gloves, a pair of sheers, and an
instruction card.
The idea, both
Kellems and Emanuele said, is to find a way to fund the purchase of
additional stations to be installed throughout all the Duneland Schools. “I
recently read in the Chesterton Tribune how the community came
together and raised over $70,000 for the new boxcar restrooms,” Emanuele
said. “If our town could do that, we could surely raise $10,000 to place
lifesaving bleeding control kits in strategic locations at all of our
schools in Duneland.”
“Stop the Bleed
training is extremely valuable and has been proven effective by research,”
Emanuele added. “It is not an end-all approach for an active shooter
situation. But it does provide the training and equipment to treat someone
in the precious seconds before EMS arrives.”
Persons interested
in making a donation for Stop the Bleed stations should contact Emanuele at
tonyemanuele@medicineinbadplaces.com
All donations will
go directly to the Duneland Schools and Medicine in Bad Places will procure
the stations at discounted pricing.