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Stop the Bleed: A Response to Rising Firearm Injuries
Medical Director of Trauma Services at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, Dr. Regan Williams discusses the Stop the Bleed campaign.
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Learn more about Regan Williams, MD
Regan Williams, MD
Regan Williams, MD is Medical Director, Trauma Services and Assistant Professor, The University of Tennessee Health Science Center Departments of Surgery and Pediatrics.Learn more about Regan Williams, MD
Transcription:
Stop the Bleed: A Response to Rising Firearm Injuries
Bill Klaproth: No matter how quickly medical responders arrive in an emergency situation, bystanders will always be the first on the scene. A person who is bleeding can die from blood loss within five minutes. Therefore, it's important to quickly stop the bleed. The American College of Surgeons has developed a Stop the Bleed course to help families recognize life threatening bleeding and intervene effectively. So let's learn more with the Medical Director of Trauma Services at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital, Dr. Regan Williams, who is deeply involved with the Stop the Bleed campaign. This is the Peds Pod by Le Bonheur Children's Hospital. I'm Bill Klaproth. Dr. Williams, thanks for your time. So what is the story behind the Stop the Bleed campaign and how did it come to be?
Dr. Williams: Sure. Stop the Bleed began in 2012 and after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Newtown, Connecticut and a trauma surgeon and member of the American College of Surgeons reviewed the victim's autopsy records and found that several of them died from severe bleeding before first responders were allowed into the building. This knowledge spurred the people in Connecticut and the emergency medical services and the American College of Surgeons to develop a training course to ensure that anyone could intervene and help stop bleeding until trained emergency responders arrive.
Host: It sounds like a really, really important course to understand how to do this. So what should parents do in case of an emergency if their child is injured and they can't stop the bleeding?
Dr. Williams: So know that you are the help until help arrives. So the first thing you always want to do is call 911. You always want to keep yourself safe and then you want to stop the bleeding, position the injured in a way that's comfortable for them and then provide comfort until the emergency medical services arrived
Host: You are the help until help arrives. I think that's really important how you said that. So then what are the basics people will learn from this course that can help in emergencies while they wait for first responders?
Dr. Williams: The course teaches three ways to stop bleeding. You can apply pressure with your hands, you can pack the wound and apply pressure or you can apply a tourniquet to stop the bleeding. And the course goes through each of those as well as offers hands on training so that you have experience in stopping bleeding with all those methods.
Host: Okay, so three basic ways. You said pressure, pack and pressure, and then tourniquets. So what is the course of like? How much does it cost?
Dr. Williams: So the course takes about 60 to 90 minutes and it's a brief presentation that goes through how it started, how to identify what life threatening bleeding is, and then the three ways of stopping the bleeding. And then it also has a hands on section. So there are our models and tourniquets and gauze that you can pack with and then gives you some real life skills. This hopefully will empower you to make a difference. If you come upon someone that's bleeding or your child is injured and is bleeding or you feel that you have the knowledge to stop the bleeding while you wait for first responders to arrest.
Host: So is there a cost for this and how does somebody sign up?
Dr. Williams: So there's typically no charge for it. Le Bonheur Hospital offers this training to anybody in the community free of charge and to get trained you can go to stopthebleed.org and it has a list you just put in your zip code and it will tell you where there are trainings close by or you can call a Bonheur Children's Hospital to get training organized as well.
Host: And since this campaign started, what have been the results of these efforts?
Dr. Williams: So the American College of Surgeons has been tracking this, and there's been over a million people trained and this includes students, teachers and community groups as well as like all of Congress has been trained in the Stop the Bleed in 2019 at least 12 States have introduced or passed legislation to inform, educate and empower their citizens to become immediate responders, so that they can save a life in the event of a bleeding emergency. We actually are working on that in the State of Tennessee right now, some of the States that have passed legislation are Texas and Indiana. Both passed laws to have Stop the Bleed kits and training in their schools. Georgia included the cost to pay for the Stop the Bleed kits in schools as part of its State budgets last year. The State of Illinois terrorism task force also installed these Stop the Bleed kits in schools. Arkansas passed the law I think a few years ago, which requires high school students to participate and be trained in the Stop the Bleed program. And then North Carolina approved legislation that funds a pilot program to train public school teachers and one of their counties.
Host: Wow. Really, really good. So Dr. Williams, why is this campaign important to you as a trauma director?
Dr. Williams: Well, more and more penetrating injuries are becoming commonplace in our city, County, State and nation. And we really do need to empower public citizens to provide help when bleeding occurs, until first responders can arrive. And so this is very easy training. It's very similar CPR for patients who are having heart attacks. But this is just how you stop bleeding in the event of life threatening bleeding. And I think it will help to save lives if we can control bleeding before first responders get there, unless give the patient longer to get to the hospital and get everything controlled by the healthcare staff.
Host: Definitely worthwhile. And something quite frankly, we all should know. So thank you so much for this information on the Stop the Bleed campaign, Dr. Williams. Thank you again.
Dr. Williams: Thank you.
Host: That's Dr. Regan Williams. And to learn more, please visit Lebonheur.org/podcast. And be sure to subscribe to the Peds Pod on Apple podcasts, Google play, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. You can also check out Lebonheur.org/podcast to view our full podcast library. And if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels. This is the Peds Pod by Le Bonheur Children's Hospital. Thanks for listening.
Stop the Bleed: A Response to Rising Firearm Injuries
Bill Klaproth: No matter how quickly medical responders arrive in an emergency situation, bystanders will always be the first on the scene. A person who is bleeding can die from blood loss within five minutes. Therefore, it's important to quickly stop the bleed. The American College of Surgeons has developed a Stop the Bleed course to help families recognize life threatening bleeding and intervene effectively. So let's learn more with the Medical Director of Trauma Services at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital, Dr. Regan Williams, who is deeply involved with the Stop the Bleed campaign. This is the Peds Pod by Le Bonheur Children's Hospital. I'm Bill Klaproth. Dr. Williams, thanks for your time. So what is the story behind the Stop the Bleed campaign and how did it come to be?
Dr. Williams: Sure. Stop the Bleed began in 2012 and after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Newtown, Connecticut and a trauma surgeon and member of the American College of Surgeons reviewed the victim's autopsy records and found that several of them died from severe bleeding before first responders were allowed into the building. This knowledge spurred the people in Connecticut and the emergency medical services and the American College of Surgeons to develop a training course to ensure that anyone could intervene and help stop bleeding until trained emergency responders arrive.
Host: It sounds like a really, really important course to understand how to do this. So what should parents do in case of an emergency if their child is injured and they can't stop the bleeding?
Dr. Williams: So know that you are the help until help arrives. So the first thing you always want to do is call 911. You always want to keep yourself safe and then you want to stop the bleeding, position the injured in a way that's comfortable for them and then provide comfort until the emergency medical services arrived
Host: You are the help until help arrives. I think that's really important how you said that. So then what are the basics people will learn from this course that can help in emergencies while they wait for first responders?
Dr. Williams: The course teaches three ways to stop bleeding. You can apply pressure with your hands, you can pack the wound and apply pressure or you can apply a tourniquet to stop the bleeding. And the course goes through each of those as well as offers hands on training so that you have experience in stopping bleeding with all those methods.
Host: Okay, so three basic ways. You said pressure, pack and pressure, and then tourniquets. So what is the course of like? How much does it cost?
Dr. Williams: So the course takes about 60 to 90 minutes and it's a brief presentation that goes through how it started, how to identify what life threatening bleeding is, and then the three ways of stopping the bleeding. And then it also has a hands on section. So there are our models and tourniquets and gauze that you can pack with and then gives you some real life skills. This hopefully will empower you to make a difference. If you come upon someone that's bleeding or your child is injured and is bleeding or you feel that you have the knowledge to stop the bleeding while you wait for first responders to arrest.
Host: So is there a cost for this and how does somebody sign up?
Dr. Williams: So there's typically no charge for it. Le Bonheur Hospital offers this training to anybody in the community free of charge and to get trained you can go to stopthebleed.org and it has a list you just put in your zip code and it will tell you where there are trainings close by or you can call a Bonheur Children's Hospital to get training organized as well.
Host: And since this campaign started, what have been the results of these efforts?
Dr. Williams: So the American College of Surgeons has been tracking this, and there's been over a million people trained and this includes students, teachers and community groups as well as like all of Congress has been trained in the Stop the Bleed in 2019 at least 12 States have introduced or passed legislation to inform, educate and empower their citizens to become immediate responders, so that they can save a life in the event of a bleeding emergency. We actually are working on that in the State of Tennessee right now, some of the States that have passed legislation are Texas and Indiana. Both passed laws to have Stop the Bleed kits and training in their schools. Georgia included the cost to pay for the Stop the Bleed kits in schools as part of its State budgets last year. The State of Illinois terrorism task force also installed these Stop the Bleed kits in schools. Arkansas passed the law I think a few years ago, which requires high school students to participate and be trained in the Stop the Bleed program. And then North Carolina approved legislation that funds a pilot program to train public school teachers and one of their counties.
Host: Wow. Really, really good. So Dr. Williams, why is this campaign important to you as a trauma director?
Dr. Williams: Well, more and more penetrating injuries are becoming commonplace in our city, County, State and nation. And we really do need to empower public citizens to provide help when bleeding occurs, until first responders can arrive. And so this is very easy training. It's very similar CPR for patients who are having heart attacks. But this is just how you stop bleeding in the event of life threatening bleeding. And I think it will help to save lives if we can control bleeding before first responders get there, unless give the patient longer to get to the hospital and get everything controlled by the healthcare staff.
Host: Definitely worthwhile. And something quite frankly, we all should know. So thank you so much for this information on the Stop the Bleed campaign, Dr. Williams. Thank you again.
Dr. Williams: Thank you.
Host: That's Dr. Regan Williams. And to learn more, please visit Lebonheur.org/podcast. And be sure to subscribe to the Peds Pod on Apple podcasts, Google play, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. You can also check out Lebonheur.org/podcast to view our full podcast library. And if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels. This is the Peds Pod by Le Bonheur Children's Hospital. Thanks for listening.