If you were to witness an emergency situation where an individual was badly injured right before your eyes, would you take action to help?
Five minutes. It’s the time it takes for a life-threatening bleed to claim a life if not managed properly. Front-line EMS personnel may take longer than that to arrive to the scene of an incident. 90 minutes. This is all it takes for an individual to learn life-saving techniques and strategies that can prevent large bleeds from claiming lives. It all comes down to timing and one’s ability to respond. According to the American College of Surgeons, roughly 150,000 people die from trauma each year; of that, approximately 20% could have been prevented.
The Trauma program at London Health Science Centre knows that an immediate response is often the difference between life and death in a bleeding emergency, and the need for these skills spans far beyond the hospital walls. They believe that bystander education is imperative to stopping preventable deaths as a result of car crashes, farming injuries, and mass casualty scenarios.
“We know that when bystanders are knowledgeable in techniques to help stop someone’s bleeding, the potential outcomes for the patient are greatly improved,”
Alison Armstrong, Trauma Program Coordinator at LHSC
Stop the Bleed Training with St. John’s Ambulance Search and Rescue.
The Stop the Bleed training program, born out of the Hartford Consensus and delivered by LHSC’s Trauma program, empowers potential by-standers to take action and respond to critical injuries through recognition and management of life-threatening bleeding. The program’s pivotal message raises awareness about the basic actions anyone can perform in order to stop a life-threatening bleed in an isolated incident, an emergency situation or natural disaster. Though the course is open to the public, high school students in grades 10+ are encouraged to take this short 90 minute course in order to ensure not only their own safety, but the safety of their peers. Injury is the leading cause of death in this age group, and the only thing more tragic than a death is a death that could have been prevented.
Be a Part of Our Trauma Team – Stop the Bleed and Save a Life.
If this training program interests you, please reach out to us by phone 519-667-6795 or email trauma@lhsc.on.ca to book a session, or to learn more.
Stop the Bleed Training with Western University Health Science students.
