Severe bleeding can take a life in as little as three minutes.
SAN ANTONIO — A car crash, gunshot wound, even a deep cut. All of those could cause a person to bleed to death in less than five minutes. Would you know how to help in those situations? Would you know how to “Stop The Bleed?”
Katie Wiggins, a University Health pediatric surgeon and Pediatric Trauma Team Medical Director told us, “Today we’re putting on a stop the bleed class to help prevent injuries or consequences from injuries when patients are bleeding.” Nicole Valdez, the University Health Adult Injury Prevention Program Manager with injury prevention added, “It can take on average 8 to 10 minutes for EMS to arrive, so we have a very small window that we can use and utilize to help save somebody’s life, with these skills that stop the bleed.”
With these hands-on learning classes the concept of how to stop the bleed is really driven home. Valdez said, “It really gets people involved. It gets people active and really stimulates a real life situation, and that’s what helps people prepare for something that happens in real life.”
Real life applications like using a tourniquet to stop the flow of blood and packing a wound to try to slow down severe bleeding. Valdez said, “You get to talk to real professionals and clinicians who are in the field doing this work as well, and get to ask questions in a more intimate personal setting.” Wiggins added, “I’ve given the training to high schoolers. This is really a training for everybody and although we’ve put on many classes, trained thousands of people, there’s still many more people who are eligible for the training.”
University Health says these free community classes are open to anyone, and encourage anybody of any age to sign up.