By Dustin Melchior
The Ironton Tribune
LAWRENCE COUNTY, Ohio — Jennifer Murray, director of trauma services at Cabell Huntington Hospital, was at the Lawrence County Commission meeting Thursday afternoon to talk about an initiative being pushed for Lawrence County schools.
“We participate and administer a course called ‘Stop the Bleed,’ which came from our regulating body, which is the American College of Surgeons, which verifies us as a level 2 trauma center,” she said. “They developed this course following the Newtown shooting in Connecticut. After everything was examined, it was determined that four or five kids could have been saved but bled to death.”
She said that the course teaches a lay person how to identify life-threatening bleeding and how to stop it, including how to pack wounds, place tourniquets and tell the difference between different types of bleeding.
“One of the first things that medical personnel and EMS learn is that you can’t go into a situation until law enforcement makes sure the scene is safe,” she said. “This course teaches students what they can do in the event of a tragedy.”
Along with the course, “Stop the Bleed” provides kits containing tourniquets and gauze, and has already been pitched to Chesapeake Elementary School with the other Chesapeake schools, Rock Hill and South Point already scheduled.
Commissioner DeAnna Holliday said that not only is this program good for children at schools, but it can also be taught to government entities, offices and more.
“This is something that everyone would be able to find very useful,” she said.
Copyright 2018 The Ironton Tribune