Stop the Bleed is a public course aimed at teaching techniques to the public to prevent death from uncontrolled bleeding. Brittany Gillard, the trauma coordinator at the Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH) and a front line emergency department nurse at Sunnybrook Hospital, had this to say about why she believes teaching the public how to prevent these tragedies is essential: “it could be your mother, father, sister, brother or child that you might be able to help one day.”
Having trained over 2.6 million individuals in bleeding control worldwide, Stop the Bleed is much like a CPR training course in that it teaches the public critical skills to save a life, while also giving them a certificate endorsed by the American College of Surgeons. The course is usually offered at around $50, about the same as a CPR course, and can be taken at various locations.
Gillard says the program runs once every month at RVH, making it easy to access. “There is once a month where we do something called PARTY program and part of it is also teaching Stop the Bleed. Once a month we have at least one high school coming.”
According to Ron Langhelm, Director of Science and Technology at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the average time for first responders to arrive is 7-10 minutes, yet the average time someone experiencing severe bleeding takes to die is only 3-5 minutes. This is one of the main reasons why Stop the Bleed is an essential course for the public to take. Taking the course might be the difference between saving a life, or a loved one dying due to a lack of education.
“You are the first responder. You become a first responder. You’re just a regular person on the sidewalk, but you are the first responder until the actual paramedics and first responders like firefighters arrive,” Gillard explains.
So, what exactly does Stop the Bleed teach? First, it teaches the public how to recognize uncontrolled bleeding and various techniques to “stop the bleed” in multiple situations. It allows the public to learn how to apply pressure to a wound and apply tourniquets. The course takes only one to two hours and is one of the quickest ways to gain medical knowledge that may save a life.
The hands-on experience that the course provides would undoubtedly be instrumental in being the difference between life and death. “People actually get their hands on fake wounds and legs with the packing material and how to put pressure,” Gillard explains.
According to the National Trauma Institute, hemorrhaging is estimated to account for over 1.5 million deaths worldwide each year, with nearly 75 million years of life lost. Years that could have easily been preserved had more of the public taken a course like Stop the Bleed. This program gets its funding through the public registration fee, so it directly depends on the participants for the program to continue.
Gillard explained that “there’s no funding for it, so we really are just trying to even out our costs so that we can continue to run the program, and we do pro bono courses for those at-risk areas.”
An issue that Stop the Bleed also addresses is gun violence, and while school shootings may be rare in Canada, gunshot injuries do occur in patients more frequently than you may think. Mass casualty events would benefit the most from Stop the Bleed, as by the time paramedics can attend to the wounded, they would be unable to save them all due to hemorrhaging.
Gillard explained that it would take longer for paramedics to respond to an event like this, on average taking around 12 to 13 minutes. “They need to do threat suppression first. What that means is the police have to come first and tell you it’s safe for you to enter. What would be the point if you let the paramedics go right away and there is still a risk for them and then they get injured as well?”
My interview with Gillard also revealed that many different types of people can become an instructor for Stop the Bleed. “The instructor status means you’ve taken the course and proven that you have the knowledge and skill and judgement and that you are able to be certified to teach it.”
“I think the key thing is,” Gillard explains, “the public are the first responders, no matter how long it takes, there’s still a wait time for paramedics to arrive, no matter where you are.”
If you want to learn more about the Stop the Bleed program, you can visit the Stop the Bleed website at stopthebleed.org, through the Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre at rvh.on.ca/stop-the-bleed, or at Sunnybrook Health Sciences https://stopthebleed.sunnybrook.ca.
*Photo, Roger Brown, Pexels License