By Carol A. Cates, MSN, MBA, RN
Chief Nursing Officer
Odessa Regional Medical Center
If there was a silver lining to the big surges of COVID, it was that the mass shootings seemed to calm down for a while. Lately it seems like not only are they back, but they are also back with a vengeance. The shootings in Chicago at the July 4th Parade are one in a very long line of mass shootings. Unfortunately, our community is also a member of the club that have suffered through these awful events. I pray we are never re-enrolled in that club, but I also believe that in the Boy Scout motto “always be prepared”. One of the best ways our community can be prepared for a mass shooting or other mass casualty event is to know how to “Stop the Bleed.”
“Stop the Bleed” is a national, grassroots movement to train non-medical people on how to control bleeding in victims of shootings or other traumatic events. This movement happened after the Sandy Hook and Pulse Nightclub shootings. Many of those victims could have been saved if people at the scene, people there before the ambulances arrived, knew how to stop bleeding. In mass casualty events, the leading cause of preventable death is blood loss, known in medical terms as exsanguination.
Stop the Bleed is a 90-minute course that teaches people how to stop bleeding in a victim of trauma. I cannot recommend this course enough. Please consider taking one if you have not.
Over 100,000 people in Texas have taken the course to date, but with roughly 30 million people in this state, we need more people to know how to stop the bleed. 100,000 is not nearly enough.
There are many options for you to take a Stop the Bleed course here in Odessa. The Trauma Program Managers at both Odessa Regional Medical Center and Medical Center Hospital can help you find a course. Call either hospital and ask for their extensions to speak to them.
You can also find a live course online at the Stop the Bleed website www.stopthebleed.org/training. The advantage of a live course is the hands-on training with skilled professionals. But if you cannot go to a live course, that same website has an online course you can take if its hard for you to go to a live course. That website also has a shopping area so you can get some of the supplies recommended in the course, though they are not essential for stopping bleeding.
All Stop the Bleed courses are free of charge. If you are a member of an organization and would like to sponsor a stop the bleed course, you can start that process by emailing [email protected]. The only requirement to take a stop the bleed course is that you can understand the materials—which means even older elementary school aged kids can take this course.
In the meantime, if you are put in a situation where you or someone near you is bleeding after a traumatic event there are several actions you can take. First, call 911. Second, apply pressure to the wound with your hands. Third, pack the wound—sterile gauze is best, but a cloth, even newspaper, paper towels, paper napkins, feminine hygiene products and even diapers will work in a pinch. Once you have it packed again apply pressure. Put as much pressure on the wound as you can. If you can get the person to a flat, hard surface, that will help you apply more pressure to the wound. Don’t take off the pressure or packing and look at the wound for at least 5 minutes and continue to apply pressure as long as the wound is bleeding. If you have been trained, you can also use a tourniquet to help stop bleeding.
Again, if you have not taken a Stop the Bleed course, I strongly encourage you to do so. Unfortunately, no community, including our own, has enough resources in their Emergency Medical Personnel to get to some of these victims quickly enough. Depending on where the wound is, with some traumas without intervention people can bleed to death in less than 5 minutes. That is why it is so very important that people in the community become the first responders in these events and know how to stop bleeding. If you have taken a course, Thank You.
