Daily Messenger
CANANDAIGUA, N.Y. — The Canandaigua Emergency Squad and Canandaigua City School District are working on an initiative to save lives.
The Canandaigua Emergency Squad, led by Chief Matt Sproul, is distributing Stop the Bleed kits and providing staff with the training on how to use them. The squad also is seeking businesses and organizations to sponsor these potentially life-saving kits.
Stop the Bleed kits provide materials to prevent severe blood loss if someone is injured.
Kits like this were developed after a 6-year-old student in South Carolina, Jacob Hall, was struck by a bullet during recess. Jacob succumbed to his injuries because of blood loss.
After his passing, residents of his hometown started Jacob Kits, which include a tourniquet and supplies to control a life-threatening bleed.
Recently, all Canandaigua Emergency Squad emergency medical technicians and paramedics underwent training to be Stop the Bleed instructors.
Stop the Bleed kits are similar to Jacob Kits. The program is supported by the American College of Surgeons and the Hartford Consensus, and the goal is to teach the public how to control life-threatening bleeding before the arrival of an emergency medical technician.
Skills taught include how to apply dressing and tourniquets, the importance of applying pressure and how to look for and identify life-threatening bleeding.
Like fire detection and sprinkler systems, the hope is that these kits will never be used, but lives may be saved if they are available.
To partner with the Canandaigua Emergency Squad on the Stop the Bleed program, contact Canandaigua Emergency Squad Chief Matt Sproul at 585-394-5860.
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