Prakash Chandran (Host):  This program is community service and is not intended to be a substitute for medical advice. Listeners having questions about their health should make an appointment to see their personal physician. Any opinions or statements made during the program are those of the individuals or physicians making the statements and are not the opinions or statements of the hospital.

This is “Healthy Conversations,” a podcast presented by Adventist Health.

Uncontrolled bleeding is a major cause of preventable deaths today and approximately 40% of trauma-related deaths worldwide are due to bleeding. But with the proper training and materials, death from bleeding can actually be avoided. So, here with us to discuss is trauma program manager DeAnna Porter. DeAnna, thank you so much for educating us today. 

DeAnna Porter (Guest):  No, thank you for having me. 

Host:  So, I want to learn a little bit about the Stop the Bleed Program and why it was started to begin with. 

DeAnna:  So, Stop the Bleed originally started most notably after the Sandy Hook shooting which was at an elementary school in December of 2012 in Newton, Connecticut. And the medical examiner who took those autopsies decided that he would only do them if he could do all of them. And the reason he did that was to identify patterns of injury that could be prevented. And what he found was that most of the deaths occurred not because of where the children were shot, but because of exsanguination or blood loss. And so, he convened this committee which later became known as the Hartford Consensus and it was composed of the American College of Surgeons, and representatives from medical centers all over the nation, the FBI, National Security Council, military, etc. And what they decided was that the best way to prevent life threatening bleeding was to make bystanders first responders. 

And so what really came out of that was this Stop the Bleed Program that we have now and it’s all over the world in 90 different countries, all over the United States and what we do is just teach nonmedical personnel how to stop life threatening bleeding. Really, it’s intended for these mass casualty events such as shootings etc. But the principles can be applied to home accidents, car accidents, things that really could happen to your friends or loved ones and so it really is just the principles of identifying bleeding and stopping bleeding. 

Host:  And what I’m hearing from you is that this is something that anyone can learn, right?

DeAnna:  Anyone. No medical training whatsoever to be able to do this. It’s much like CPR, hands only CPR where we can take people off the street and teach them how to do this. The class is only an hour long. And it really just tells you what kind of bleeding you need to be worried about and how to stop that bleeding. 

Host:  Yeah, I’m so glad that a program like this exists because so many of us unfortunately, we kind of look at the TV and we see people like take pieces of their T-shirt and then wrap it around the wound and maybe that would be enough if we are unfortunately in a situation like this, but maybe you can give us a breakdown or walk through what the Stop the Bleed Program covers. 

DeAnna:  So, we start with a formal presentation. It’s about 20 minutes long. It’s a Power Point and lecture, but really what we cover in that is the ABCs of bleeding. So, A, alerting. You don’t want to be treating anyone without having backup on the way. So, calling 9-1-1. And then B, finding the bleeding, where is that bleeding and is it life threatening. And then C, how to compress or stop that bleeding. 

So, we actually go over in the class things such as using your hands like you mentioned with the shirt off of your back or what maybe in your surroundings. And we go over a little bit more formal training about how to basic pack a wound, a big deep wound to stuff something inside of it to stop the bleeding or how to use formal tourniquets or how to make a tourniquet out of the things that are around you. 

Host:  Okay, that makes a lot of sense. How often, by the way, are you offering this program?

DeAnna:  So, we offer it all over the county like I said completely free of charge. It takes about an hour and we offer this – we can come to you, wherever you are, so we’ve done quilting groups, gun clubs, book clubs. We’ve gone to places of business to teach staff and we offer it really as much as anybody wants to have the class. We do do formal community classes at the hospital. We try to do it at least once if not twice a year, but otherwise, we’ll really come to you and teach whoever wants to learn it. 

Host:  That’s wonderful. And where can someone actually sign up for this to have them for example come to you or a group that you have going on?

DeAnna:  So, you can go directly to the Stop the Bleed website which is www.bleedingcontrol.org. I would be happy to arrange and set up a class for anyone who is interested. 

Host:  Yeah, it’s wonderful that there are so many ways that people can get involved to learn this and it seems like something that’s so incredibly important. We obviously don’t hope to be in one of these situations one day, but it really does seem like it can save lives. I want to unpack a little bit what you were saying about I guess what the surgeon noticed after the Sandy Hook shootings. Maybe go into just a little bit more detail about some of the wounds that were there. I know that there’s a lot that’s covered in the program but talk about maybe some of the things that are preventable like some of the wounds that the bystanders can fix.

DeAnna:  Well in the Sandy Hook shooting specifically, a lot of those were extremity injuries that may have nicked an artery or a vessel so they were injuries that with a tourniquet or pressure could have been easily stopped. From some of the other mass casualty things we’ve seen it’s been bombings and near amputations again, something tourniquets or direct pressure could easily take care of. And like I said, we see the same principles applied in car accidents from near amputations or wounds from shrapnel or things being thrown around, in a mass casualty incident, such as a bombing or just in a car from something that’s been projected across the car during the accident. So, really, it’s any kind of gashes, wounds. We go over junctional injuries, trunk injuries and then extremity injuries. What kind of injuries you can put a tourniquet on and what kind of injuries you need to use direct pressure for. And a lot of that is based on location. 

Host:  Okay and are there any best practices of things not to do when they are in a situation like this? Like what have you seen people make mistakes on?

DeAnna:  Really, I think any kind of intervention is helpful so, if you can just remember to put direct pressure on something that’s bleeding, and I think people get caught up or they are afraid to act, a lot of times people wait too long to intervene because they are scared, they don’t know what to do. So, that’s really the benefit of this class is that we can give you the empowerment to know like I know what to do in this situation. I know how to stop this bleeding. And make sure you call 9-1-1 early because you really don’t want to be in a situation like that by yourself. You really want to have help on the way. 

Host:  Yeah, it really does seem like these simple measures can help save lives and what you’re doing like you said, is really giving people the confidence that they can make a difference to do that. And it’s pretty incredible that this program is offered. So, I really appreciate your time today DeAnna. Thank you for educating us on this program. Is there anything else that you want to say to the audience before we wrap up today?

DeAnna:  Just really you can die from life-threatening bleeding in less than three minutes. So, really, if you are relying on EMS or paramedics to be your only help, then you are really putting yourself at a disadvantage especially if this is one of your community members, friends or family. So, having these tools are really important to be able to save a life. 

Host:  Absolutely. So, it really does sound like call 9-1-1 so they get dispatched and they are on their way. The second thing is do something about it, hopefully you have taken this class and you start intervening because you said any sort of intervention is helpful. It’s just getting the confidence to do so. because, like you said, three minutes, that’s not a lot of time at all. 

DeAnna:  Yeah, exactly. 

Host:  Well thank you again so much DeAnna. I truly appreciate it. My guest today has been DeAnna Porter. I’m Prakash Chandran. Thank you so much for listening. 

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