Stop The Bleed
In the wake of a traumatic event, uncontrolled bleeding is one of the most frequent causes of death.
About Stop the Bleed
In response to increased gun violence and mass casualty events in the country, the White House and the Department of Homeland Security created “Stop the Bleed,” a national campaign to help improve survival from life-threatening bleeding.
In the nation’s largest Stop the Bleed initiative, UPMC is partnering with the Copeland Regional Trauma Council, a consortium of trauma centers in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, to coordinate Stop the Bleed efforts.
What we're doing
UPMC and the Copeland Regional Trauma Council’s Stop the Bleed effort has four main goals:
- To train bystanders how to stop bleeding with dressings, compression, and tourniquets.
- To train law enforcement officers how to stop bleeding in victims, their fellow officers, and themselves
- To conduct and facilitate “Train the Trainer” classes for paramedics, EMTs, firefighters, and other health care professionals, who can then teach these lifesaving skills to members of the communities they serve
- To place bleeding control kits, containing items such as dressings and tourniquets, in publicly accessible locations across western Pennsylvania
Why it's important
A person can bleed to death in less than five minutes, which makes it difficult for emergency medical responders to arrive fast enough to control bleeding and save lives.
Because bystanders and non-medical law enforcement officers may be on the scene before emergency medical responders, Stop the Bleed aims to educate them on how to control bleeding, with the goal of saving lives.
In the News
Stop the Bleed: Schools learn life-saving technique for mass casualty situation. Watch the story now on WTAE >