Two to five minutes. That’s all it takes for a bad situation to get worse.
More to the point, that’s all it takes for a person suffering a traumatic injury to bleed to death – or to “bleed out,” in medical parlance – without proper medical attention.
The good news is that learning what to do to stabilize such a patient until first responders arrive is easier than you probably think.
To equip members of the community with that life-saving information, St. Tammany Health System’s Trauma Services department has released the schedule for its free monthly Stop the Bleed classes for summer and early fall 2022.
The hourlong classes, which are open to the public, will be held in the Covington Conference Room on the health system’s Covington hospital campus (1202 S. Tyler St.). Those interested can register through the calendar module on the main page of StTammany.health.
The schedule, which is subject to change, is as follows. All classes are from 5 to 6 p.m.:
- Thursday, June 23
- Thursday, July 14
- Thursday, Aug. 4
- Tuesday, Sept. 20
- Wednesday, Oct. 26
- Wednesday, Nov. 9
The Stop the Bleed program is part of a national initiative to train members of the community to stabilize a wound until EMTs arrive.
“The number one cause of a preventable death is hemorrhage, or bleeding out,” said St. Tammany Health System Trauma Services Manager Bethany Monistere, the driving force behind the health system’s Stop the Bleed program. “But it’s not that hard to put on a tourniquet or identify life-threatening bleeding. If you can arm citizens with this information to control bleeding, you can save someone’s life.”