Mercy Health trains people to Stop the Bleed and save a life

Brought to you by MERCY HEALTH

When an injury causes excessive blood loss, his or her life may depend on prompt intervention from someone already on the scene. However, all too often, bystanders in this scenario lack the knowledge necessary to intervene and stop the bleeding. In an effort to prepare area residents to take effective action and save lives in bleeding emergencies, Mercy Health is offering a free hands-on training program called Stop the Bleed.

According to Mercy Health Trauma Education Coordinator Amanda Lencyk, uncontrolled bleeding is the No. 1 cause of preventable death from trauma, so Stop the Bleed was developed to teach everyday people how to stop bleeding in the crucial moments before emergency help arrives.

“Much like the campaigns to teach people how to perform CPR or the Heimlich maneuver, which have saved many lives, the focus of Stop the Bleed is what the immediate response should be – how to recognize life-threatening bleeding and how to stop it,” she explains.

The Stop the Bleed program was developed to emphasize the dangers of traumatic injury and the effects that bleeding has on recovery. In a world where we are faced with unsuspected tragedy, having everyday people able to apply pressure and help mitigate bleeding, will justly save lives.

Stop the Bleed was motivated by the 2012 Sandy Hook tragedy, when the trauma surgeon attending the victims observed that more could have survived their injuries if bystanders had been able to stop their bleeding at the scene.

Of course, the active-shooter scenarios that continue to make headlines are only one way severe-bleeding emergencies can arise. People should also be prepared to deal with them in the wake of injury accidents on roadways, in the workplace, around the home or in any other environment.

Mercy Health – Youngstown has been providing the Stop the Bleed training locally for more than two years to help bring awareness and preparedness on how to respond when traumatic events occur.

The Stop the Bleed program follows the ABCs of bleeding which include:

A – Alert: Call 911.

B – Bleeding: Find the bleeding injury.

C – Compress: Apply pressure to help decrease the flow of blood.

People are also taught how to recognize whether bleeding is life-threatening, what to do if the injury is to an arm or leg versus the neck or chest, how to apply pressure to a wound, how to apply a tourniquet, how to pack a wound, what to do if they have a trauma kit and what to do if they don’t. Students even learn the various ways simple items such as a shirt can be used to save a life.

The program is developed for all ages with an emphasis on educators throughout the Mahoning Valley. “This program is no cost to the district or the public and therefore, our hope at Mercy, is that every district in our reach embraces this opportunity” she added.

School districts that use the Stop the Bleed training receive an official Stop the Bleed kit that is located by AEDs within the buildings provided by the Trauma Services department at Mercy Health Youngstown.

In addition to public and school trainings, a third component of the Stop the Bleed program is known as Train the Trainer – where medical professionals are educated on becoming trainers themselves by following the ABCs of blood control.

Currently, Mercy Health has trained more than 400 NEOMED and LECOM students who are taking this initiative to communities across the nation and world. For more information on training classes or how to schedule your group session, please call Amanda Lencyk at 330.480.2496

As the Valley’s only Level 1 Trauma Center between Pittsburgh and Cleveland, our clinicians, physicians and surgeons are expertly and specially trained to manage the most critically injured patients. To learn more about Mercy Health Youngstown’s trauma program, visit www.mercy.com.