CHICAGO: The first ever National Stop the Bleed Day will take place on March 31 and feature training courses around the country to teach bleeding control techniques to the general public. The basic bleeding control course being offered provides participants with the essential knowledge to save a life in the case of a serious bleeding emergency.
In many cases, bleeding is a preventable cause of death. The ability to recognize life-threatening bleeding and the ability to intervene effectively can save a person’s life. Whether a bleeding injury is the result of a shooting or a home accident, one person who is on the scene, at the right time, and who has the right skills can make a life or death difference.
One of the goals of the Stop the Bleed initiative is to turn civilians into immediate responders. The term “immediate responder” describes the first person at the scene of an injury. This person is rarely a trained medical provider. The American College of Surgeons (ACS), working in partnership with many other organizations, has now made the training needed to address such incidents easily available to the public. Through nationwide advocacy efforts, ACS is continually working to ensure that all people have access to training opportunities and can become immediate responders. National Stop the Bleed Day is the widest rollout of bleeding control training across the country to date.
On National Stop the Bleed Day:
- This nationwide campaign will highlight the importance of Stop the Bleed training and provide the public with information and education through local fire, EMS, and health care professionals.
- FREE Bleeding Control Basics classes will be offered to the public, furthering the goal of the American College of Surgeons to train everyone in the U.S. about what to do during a bleeding emergency.
- Many of our 16,000 registered instructors will participate in this grassroots effort, leading more than 600 courses in the U.S. on or near March 31, with additional course offerings in other countries.
“To learn bleeding control techniques will empower the public. In a case of massive bleeding, the person who can help save a life is most often the person who happens to be beside the victim,” said Lenworth M. Jacobs, Jr., MD, MPH, FACS, ACS Regent and Hartford Consensus Chairman.
Stop the Bleed traces its origins to the aftermath of the Sandy Hook School shootings on December 14, 2012. Shortly afterward, the ACS partnered with law enforcement and other interested national organizations to develop the Hartford Consensus. Out of this Consensus (where the initial meetings convened in Hartford, Conn.), emerged an emergency response goal to improve survival following mass shootings and other intentional acts of mass violence by empowering civilians to take life-saving action when the need arises, regardless of the situation or cause of the significant bleeding.
After recommendations of the Hartford Consensus were released, Stop the Bleed®, a national public awareness campaign was launched in October of 2015 by the White House, with a call to action to begin training more people to become immediate responders. Stop the Bleed cultivates grassroots efforts that encourage bystanders to become trained, equipped, and empowered to help in a bleeding emergency, thus becoming the first vital link of the trauma care chain of survival.
The American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma (ACS COT) is leading the effort to save lives by teaching individuals how to provide vital initial response to stop uncontrolled bleeding in emergency situations. The Bleeding Control Basics course gives participants the necessary tools to become an empowered initial responder. The ACS estimates that more than 150,000 people have already been trained in bleeding control.
To find a class, visit www.bleedingcontrol.org.
