Stop The Bleed

Memorial Healthcare System and the School Board of Broward County are working together to provide life-saving training to all staff to respond to traumatic injuries caused by accidents or acts of violence.

The school system will receive a Stop The Bleed kit from their local EMS agency by the end of the summer while the Trauma Team from Memorial Regional Hospital is leading efforts to train EMS providers and hospital staff to provide the training to school staff on how to stop life threatening bleeding with or without the kits.

Training began on August 6 and will continue through the school year until all 246 schools have received training. This will include teachers, support staff, and school medical support.

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The bleeding control kits include tourniquets and other first-aid materials. Training is a short didactic and hands-on interactive presentation.

The Stop The Bleed program is a national initiative created to decrease preventable deaths from massive bleeding. Similar to CPR and AED trainings, the Stop the Bleed trainings is designed to teach the community, staff and students how to provide life-saving steps to stop uncontrolled bleeding before emergency personnel arrives.

“This is part of a movement recognizing that bystanders are the first responders and their actions can help save a life,” said Candace Pineda, Director of Trauma at Memorial Regional Hospital. “Memorial Trauma Center’s goal is for this training will become as universal as CPR.”

Funding for the kits come from the Broward County EMS Coalition and Broward County Healthcare Coalition.

A person who is bleeding can die from blood loss within five minutes, therefore it is important to quickly stop the blood loss. Those nearest to someone with life threatening injuries are best positioned to provide initial care.

According to a recent National Academies of Science study, trauma is the leading cause of death for Americans under age 46.

The effort is being led by the Hollywood Fire Rescue and the leadership of the Trauma Centers and the Stop The Bleed Coalition members: Broward Health, Broward Trauma Agency, Broward Emergency Medical Services (EMS) agencies, Broward Sheriff’s Office, all Broward County Fire Rescue Agencies, supporting police departments and community emergency response teams to provide the Stop The Bleed program throughout all schools.