Content warning for references to wounds, bleeding and injury.
On Tuesday, March 19, UConn Rescue and Stop the Bleed hosted a workshop with a UConn Rescue basic life support and Stop the Bleed instructor on how to stop life-threatening bleeding in Chemistry Building room T309.
Kathryn Wilkinson, an eighth-semester molecular and cell biology major with an anthropology of global health minor, gave the workshop. Wilkinson began the workshop by giving a brief history of Stop the Bleed. “Stop the Bleed is a national campaign started in October 2015 in Hartford to prepare people for an emergency or life-threatening situations,” she said. She noted that Stop the Bleed was a result of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Wilkinson gave a content warning for the graphic imagery that was shown in the slideshow and videos.
“The #1 cause of preventable death after injury is bleeding,” Stop the Bleed staff and Wilkinson stated. To put into perspective how common and potentially fatal bleeding could be, Wilkinson screened the YouTube video “Young Skier Saved by STOP THE BLEED Training,” where interviews highlighted how the skier could have died from the wound he got if he didn’t get the adequate care on the scene, courtesy of Stop the Bleed.
Wilkinson then introduced the audience to the “ABCs of bleeding.” They are: alert 911, find the source of the bleeding and compress the wound with the cleanest material possible. She noted that the safety of the person who finds the bleeding individual is the top priority because a person cannot help somebody else and if they get hurt too, which also adds more work for the paramedics and hospital staff. If the situation becomes unsafe, Stop the Bleed recommends pausing care, moving to safety and taking the victim with you if you can.
Wilkinson then focused on the bleeding portion of the ABC rule. She recommends wearing gloves if you can, but she acknowledged how in an applied scenario gloves aren’t always available. If you get blood on you, Stop the Bleed says to wash it off thoroughly with soap and water and wait for further instruction from paramedics. Wilkinson emphasized how the wound with the most active bleeding has the priority in treatment to prevent the most blood loss. Some signs of major active bleeding are if the bleeding is continuous, in a large volume, pooling, spurting or spraying. Wilkinson pointed out how clothing could obscure bleeding, so that is why shears are included in Stop the Bleed kits.
When addressing the compress section of the bleeding ABCs, Wilkinson noted three types of bleeding treatments: direct pressure, packing the wound and tourniquet usage. When applying direct pressure, the person applying the pressure shouldn’t peek and check on the wound but consistently keep the pressure instead. It is best to wear gloves and use a shirt or other clean cloth on hand to absorb the blood.
If the wound is deep, Stop the Bleed recommends packing the wound by stuffing sterile gauze into the wound while also applying pressure. A video was shown demonstrating hemostatic gauze, a special type of packing gauze that promotes faster clotting with a special mineral in it.
stop the bleed is a national campaign started in october 2015 in hartford to prepare people for an emergency or life-threatening situations.
Kathryn Wilkinson, eighth semester
Wilkinson moved onto tourniquets. “Commercially made tourniquets (CAT) are the gold standard of tourniquets,” she said. It was noted that tourniquets are supposed to completely stop the blood flow to the wound. She then addressed makeshift tourniquets by saying: “This course does not endorse using shirts and belts for bleeding if you can hold direct pressure, but you can try.” It is recommended that when applying a tourniquet, you should ideally apply it 2 to 3 inches above the wound so that a second tourniquet can be put on if it needs to be. Wilkinson warned that tourniquets shouldn’t be put on joints. Tourniquets can stay on for approximately two hours, according to Wilkinson, before permanent damage is dealt to the nerve cells. If there is a loss of a limb, one should automatically apply a tourniquet instead of applying pressure and packing the wound to save time and resources. If you’re applying it to someone who is bleeding, it’s important to never loosen or take off the tourniquet and to talk the person through the process of tightening it to gauge how much the injury hurts. When working with small children, tourniquets may not be small enough to fit them, but direct pressure should be enough to stop the bleeding.
Stop the Bleed kits come with a thermal blanket since blood loss could lead to hypothermia, even in warmer months. It is also important, according to Wilkinson, to remove wet clothing. Stop the Bleed kits also have a chest seal for medically trained bystanders in the case of a chest wound. A video was shown demonstrating the chest seal.
Wilkinson warned against taking out objects that impaled a person because the wound is already clotting on the object and disturbing it would lead to blood loss. She shared a story about a woman who was pinned between a garage door and a car; the car remained where it was so that first responders could apply a tourniquet without the woman bleeding out.
There was then an interactive section where the audience could pack cloth into fake wounds on a rubber log and practice applying a tourniquet on themselves and each other. The part of the tourniquet that squeezes the limb is called a windlass and it has a holder on the tourniquet to keep the pressure on the twist.
Wilkinson shared the PulsePoint AED app, which shows where AEDs are on the UConn campus. Wilkinson ended the workshop with a quote saying: “The only thing more tragic than a death is a death that could have been prevented.” The audience then scanned two QR codes: one for a certificate form to show that they did this training and the other for a feedback survey.
This is incredibly useful and important information that anybody could benefit from. By learning how to stop life-threatening bleeding, people are learning to save others’ lives.
Stop the Bleed has an official website at stopthebleed.org.