High-crime neighborhoods get lessons in gunshot first aid

Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA

Mike Abdullah watched as a young woman lay shot in the street in a corner of north Philadelphia known as the Badlands, spitting up the blood that gradually choked her to death.

The fatal shooting was one of many he says he has seen in the city over the years and felt helpless to stop. Recently, Abdullah – who also lost a younger brother and four nephews to gun violence – joined more than 50 of his neighbors at an elementary school to learn how to help the next victim in time.

Temple University Hospital is enlisting neighborhood residents – most of them poor, black and living in violent areas – in the program, called “Fighting Chance.” The doctors and nurses conducting the training have plenty of experience, as the hospital treats at least 400 shooting victims a year.

The moments after a shooting are critical. A gunshot victim hit in the upper arm or thigh can bleed out in two minutes. Borrowing from battlefield tactics, the trainers teach neighborhood residents how to tighten a tourniquet around someone’s arm, drag them to safety, apply pressure to major arteries to stop bleeding, and position victims in a vehicle before rushing them to a hospital.