In the event of an emergency, stopping the bleeding of an injured person can mean the difference between life and death.

The administration of Seymour Community School Corp. learned Wednesday how to improve the odds of survival in an emergency.

“The only thing worse than dying from bleeding is dying from preventable bleeding,” said Nate Bryant, owner and instructor of CPR Education who taught the class called Stop the Bleed.

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“If one of these vessels is damaged and you’re calling an ambulance, that person could die before you finish calling,” he said.

Bryant warned that if a major blood vessel is punctured as part of an injury, it can take less than three minutes for the individual to die from exsanguination.

The class aimed to teach administrators how to stop that blood loss in the event of any life-threatening situations, whether those be from mass casualty or injury events, such as school shootings, tornadoes or fires, or single-injury situations, such as accidents in the school or wrecks on the school grounds.

“It’s very informative, very useful, not just in mass casualty instances like tornadoes or things like that but in day-to-day life,” said Talmadge Reasoner, assistant principal at Seymour High School. “You never know when you’re going to come across a car wreck or accident either at school or in daily life, and these are things I can even use around my home in an emergency,”

The importance of the class, even with trained first responders already in the schools, was not wasted on the class.

School Resource Officer Keith Williams highlighted the statistics of the situation observing that in the event of a large-scale emergency, there are somewhere between 700 and 1,500 students in Seymour High School. Meanwhile, there are only two individuals with emergency medical training present at any given time — the school nurse and school resource officer.

“Those numbers in an emergency, whatever it is, just aren’t enough,” he said. “Also, what would happen if one of the two of us were injured in the event?”

Bryant hoped to stem those numbers somewhat by instructing school administrators to use techniques to help.

“This isn’t something required by any governing body, like CPR, but it’s an important skill, especially with the rise of school violence,” said Bryant, who has training as an emergency medical technician and a paramedic. “The first few minutes with a patient can make the difference between living and dying.”

The class taught what Bryant calls the ABC’s of bleeding care: A, alert emergency response by calling 911; B, bleeding, finding and identifying the bleeding locations; and C, compress, stopping or mitigating the bleed.

While the A of the class might seem apparent, Bryant explained it still is important. The administrators and even first responders are not able to stop the bleeding as well as a hospital or medical facility could.

Second, those giving aid need to identify all bleeding locations and their severity by clearing clothing and possibly some of the blood, making sure to not disturb any clots that had formed.

Finally, the group learned to stop or at least control the bleeding.

This was achieved through a variety of methods depending on the location and severity of the bleed.

Smaller, shallower cuts and punctures could be cleared with gauze; however, more severe, deeper cuts or punctures might require use of a homeostatic gauze, clotting agents or a tourniquet.

Bryant went over proper use of homeostatic gauze, a bandage that has been coated with a chemical that causes blood to clot faster. This gauze is usually applied to the core of the body during bleeds to mitigate bleeding.

Meanwhile, bleeding on extremities is usually treated with tourniquets, which are bindings that are tightened on the body between the bleed and the core of the body to stop the loss of blood by tightening.

Bryant said any of these are painful to the person being treated, “extremely painful” in some cases, but it is better “the person was able to complain later about the pain than dead.”

“Adults and older children understand that it might hurt but it will keep them alive, but younger children might fight it,” he said, warning that children could mess with the bindings or bandages to stop the pain, causing it to worsen.

“Humans, especially before they fully develop logic, have an instinct to stop things from hurting, and that includes treatment,” he said.

Administrators then received a chance to practice applying tourniquets to each other and packing wounds on a specially constructed dummy.

“This training is something that may be useful in a mass shooting or natural disaster situation, but I am probably more likely to encounter a car accident or an accident in my home or neighbors than those. Either way, it’s important,” Reasoner said.

The class was offered free of charge to the school by CPR Education.

“Safety of our kids is paramount,” Williams said. “Maybe it’s just a refresher to some, but for free, why wouldn’t we want to know how to do it?”

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For more information on Stop the Bleed training and others from CPR Education, contact Nate Bryant at [email protected] or visit cpreducation.net.

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