Upstate University Hospital’s Trauma Center is offering free classes to teach individuals and organizations how to stop a person from bleeding in a life-threatening situation. The training is being encouraged in the aftermath of recent mass shootings.
Upstate’s trauma outreach and education coordinator Jerry Morrison teaches how to stop a deadly hemorrhage using a bleeding control kit. He said the “Stop the Bleed” program is as easy as A, B, C.
“A is for alert, so its call 911," Morrison said. "B is looking for life-threatening bleeding. C is compression which involves tourniquets, wound packing and direct pressure.”
The nationwide campaign was first conceived after the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012. It was determined that lives could have been saved if bystanders knew how to properly control bleeding.
Upstate’s trauma injury prevention coordinator Kim Nasby used the Pulse nightclub shooting in 2016, where people were hiding in bathrooms while police secured the scene, as an example.
“Within that amount of time, if you are bleeding, and you have life-threatening bleeding, it might not be okay, and you might not make it while you’re waiting for a scene to get under control,” Nasby said. "No one ever thinks it's going to happen in their community. This is just to preemptively be trained in something and it's an empowerment; it gives people the feeling that they could help if something were to happen."
Upstate is partnering with the Syracuse City School District and officials encouraged any large-scale venues or office buildings to sign up for the training. More than 250 people have already gone through the class.