It’s summertime and, as the song goes, the living is easy. That’s true unless you happen to work in the ER.
In fact, between kids being out of school, July 4th fireworks, swimming, grilling, heat and all the rest that comes with this time of year, summer is traditionally busy for doctors, nurses and others specializing in trauma care.
But, as St. Tammany Health System Trauma Services Manager Bethany Monistere said during a recent visit to The Lake 94.7-FM studios, there are things you can do to keep your loved ones safe.
Listen to Bethany’s conversation with Dave of The Lake in the embedded audio player below or at The Lake website. You can also scroll down to read an edited transcript of their conversation.
Dave: We got some nice people in the studio right now. We are going to welcome them to the show. We get to hang out with them every Thursday. It is Tim from St. Tammany Health System. Good morning.
Tim San Fillippo: Good morning Dave, it is good seeing you.
Dave: And then we have Bethany is here is as well. She is your trauma manager over at St. Tammany Health System. Good morning Bethany.
Bethany Montistere: Good morning.
Dave: We are gearing up for Father’s Day. Fourth of July.
Tim: That is right, it is National Safety Month.
Dave: Do you know why it is National Safety Month right now?
Tim: Because people do silly things right now.
Dave: Because people do silly things right now. It is Father’s Day, so dads doing dad project things.
Tim: Dad has got to be on the grill so, there is some flare ups. Hopefully there are not explosive turkeys. There is some shenanigans.
Dave: Fourth of July, as best we try to stop it, there will be bottle rocket wars. Don’t do it, it is a bad idea.
Bethany: Oh, it is a horrible idea.
Tim: Especially the way 2020 was. You just know that 2021 Fourth of July will be explosive.
Dave: So how many traumas, Bethany, do you think you are going to see this month?
Bethany: We hope to see none, but we are prepared to see all. It is a very dangerous holiday, including the fact that our nice Louisiana weather is nice and hot and everybody wants to be out in the water. … We have a lot of water injuries, so for National Safety Month we just want everybody to stay safe and wear your life jackets even though you know how to swim. Dangerous things can happen out on the water.
We are prepared to see anything and everything, but fireworks are very dangerous as times have told us in the past. Fireworks can be very dangerous. No bottle rocket wars.
Dave: So, as a trauma manager for St. Tammany, at this time of year specifically. What do you think the majority of the traumas you see are? Could you say they are related to one category more than another? Like boat accidents, car accidents? Or like home – people doing silly things in the garage?
Tim: I have a question. Is it natural or is it plum stupidity? What do you see the most of? Is that where you were going?
Bethany: We like to call them “adventures.” We will be nice about it. No, actually the summertime is the hottest time for traumas. It is because people are out and on vacation. They are out on the water. There are more people on the roads. All the kids are in school during the school year, so during the summer everybody wants to drive and go on vacation. We have a major corridor; I-12 has always got traffic no matter what you do. But summertime ramps up everything. So we get a plethora of injuries. …. It is a mixture.
Trauma always happens, (but) our peak months are typically the summertime months. We like to attribute that to (the fact that) we have more people out and about – and especially since nobody was really out and about last year. We are gearing up. This year we know that people are out and about. It already has ramped up a little bit. We are hoping everybody stays safe, but we are prepared for them at St. Tammany Health Systems ERs. Hopefully we won’t have to see you, but we are there for you.
Dave: I would have to imagine that as the trauma manager, you probably have some tips, some education practices or something like that you could help or give. Maybe something on here that you could divulge on the air? Or maybe there are some programs that people could register for, that might help them to make less adventurous decisions? Maybe there are some resources that people can take a quick look at online?
Bethany: Absolutely. Visit StopTheBleed.org. There is a lot of information (there). It is very easy: stopthebleed.org.
Dave: That’s a perfect name for a trauma website. But in all seriousness, it brings up a very valid point. Sometimes it is the people on the scene, the … bystanders, who could be your first line of defense. So even if a trauma doesn’t necessarily happen to you, but (if) you yourself are educated in what to do, in a trauma situation you may witness you could save somebody’s life.
Bethany: Absolutely, we like to arm everyone, all of our citizens, with the tools and the knowledge of how to, like the website says, stop the bleed. The number one preventable cause of death with any injury is bleeding, so if we can arm the bystanders with the right tools and knowledge of how to stop the bleed, not only can you do it on yourself, you can actually help someone who is in dire need of help (as you) wait for first responders. We love our first responders, but like Tim said, they are not beamed down. It takes time for them to get there. Someone could potentially bleed out in 2 to 5 minutes. That is not a lot of time. So we arm you with the tools of how to save someone’s life by preventing the bleeding from getting beyond helping that person.
We have plenty of classes. StopTheBleed.org is an actual place that you can go and find a local place that has classes. We are going to open them up to the public eventually, once we get the all-clear from our administrators at the hospital. We want to keep everybody safe. We still maintain our COVID precautions. so we haven’t ramped it up as much as we would like to this year. The classes are a little bit smaller, but we still want to educate everyone. We have done a great job this year. The St. Tammany Parish School Board let us go and teach a lot of faculty and staff from our schools. I am proud to say that we taught over 400 members of the St. Tammany Parish public school system, so feel a little better because your kids’ teachers actually have the knowledge to stop the bleed should something happen at school.
Dave: So, if folks are now interested and want to learn more about your programs – how can they?
Bethany: There are two ways you can get in touch with us. To schedule either your own Stop the Bleed class or join one of ours at our hospital. So, you can email communityeducation@stph.org, or you can call our Education Department: (985) 898-4083 and choose extension four, which is for community education. We will happily set up a class for anybody and everybody. This is something that even children can learn.
Dave: So are these classes that are previously scheduled and you are putting people into the spots or are you scheduling the classes per need or is it both?
Bethany: We do both. We have classes that are scheduled for the faculty and staff at the hospital at various times. Our citizens can actually join in on those classes, but we also go out into the community (to) church groups, neighborhood associations – motorcycle clubs is something that we have started lately. We have a couple of clubs that we are actually going out to their events. We are doing this little program. It takes about an hour of talking you through it and actually physically giving you the hands-on training with tourniquets and pressure dressing – the stuff that anyone can do. We have taught kids that are as young as 10. If you think your child is capable of picking up the phone and calling 911, I promise they can actually help stop the bleed. It is a great program.
Tim: That is one of the things I have seen with what you guys do. I think it is tremendous how hands on it is. You are not up there with just a PowerPoint presentation. You have got different models and you make sure that people have the skills before they leave, with what they need to do to save a life.
Bethany: Absolutely. You don’t just want to throw a tourniquet at somebody and help them figure out how to use it: “You do it! You take this!” Not everyone has put their hands on a tourniquet before. They are very accessible now. People now carry them in their cars. After we give these trainings a lot of people want to know where to buy the stuff. I know that I personally have one in my car at all times, being a trauma manager, but we also have laypeople in the public that they carry them in their car. They now know how to use them. It is simple but, think about what you are dealing with when you are dealing with somebody who has an injury with a life-threatening bleed. That is not something that you have time to think about, “How do I use this piece of equipment?”
Dave: You can’t Google the manual?
Bethany: No, you can’t. Most kits come with a picture guide, and it is very nice.
Tim: Also, there is a YouTube video, but you don’t have time for that.
Bethany: You don’t have time to watch the YouTube videos. But even if you don’t have the medical equipment with you, if you don’t have a tourniquet, you don’t have gauze in your car because you know -- I am a nurse. I have been a nurse for quite some years, and I don’t walk around with gauze in my pockets. So I don’t have gauze, but we teach you in the class what you can instead of gauze, instead of a tourniquet. There are things that you can use that everyone carries on a day-to-day basis, that can help save someone’s life.
To learn more about St. Tammany Health System’s Stop the Bleed program or to inquire about scheduling a class for your group, email communityeducation@stph.org or call the STHS Community Education office at (985) 898-4083 ext. #4.