More than 60 members of the North Massapequa Fire Department recently learned lifesaving techniques from the trauma team at NYU Winthrop Hospital during a Stop The Bleed program.
Stop the Bleed encourages first responders and everyday citizens to become trained and empowered to assist in a bleeding emergency until professional medical aid arrives. NYU Winthrop has been training organizations and residents across Long Island in recent months, bringing the Stop the Bleed program’s lifesaving techniques to firefighters, public safety officers, health professionals, university staff, entertainment venues, corporations and more.
“We all understand that every second counts during an emergency, so it is vital that first responders learn the techniques of Stop the Bleed,” said D’Andrea Joseph, MD, Chief of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery at NYU Winthrop Hospital. “Our training of the North Massapequa Fire Department will make its firefighters all the more prepared, enabling them to provide immediate care to sustain life after serious blood loss.”
practice stuffing
a wound.
“The information that the NYU Winthrop trauma team shared with us provides the North Massapequa Fire Department one more skill in our efforts to save those who have been involved in a serious accident or incident and have suffered significant blood loss,” said North Massapequa Chief of Department Fred Ferrara. “The Stop the Bleed program has provided us with invaluable training, and it will help us save lives.”
According to a National Academies of Science study, trauma is the leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 46, resulting from car crashes, gun violence, mass casualty incidents and terrorism, as well as from home and work injuries. In many cases, the deaths are due to blood loss and are preventable. The Stop the Bleed program focuses on teaching tactics to recognize life-threatening bleeding and provide immediate response to control that bleeding including by direct pressure, the use of tourniquets, or packing (filling) a wound with gauze or clean cloth. Bleeding wounds, such as to the arms and legs, can many times be controlled by direct pressure. The Stop the Bleed program was the brainchild of a physician who examined the wounds among those killed in the Sandy Hook massacre in Newtown, CT and determined that if pressure had been immediately applied to some wounds, some deaths would have been prevented.
“The hope is that Stop the Bleed will become a standard lifesaving program just like CPR,” said Joseph, noting a poll that showed if a situation was deemed safe, 94 percent of respondents said they were likely to try to stop bleeding in a stranger. “Bystanders are usually the first on the scene following a calamitous event, and they’re positioned to provide immediate care to sustain life after blood loss.”
—Submitted by NYU Winthrop Hospital
