Knowing how to stop a bleeding wound can be the difference between life and death if you know how to act quickly in the precious seconds and minutes after a major injury occurs.
That’s why hundreds of parents, families, students and community members cycled through a Northside Independent School District gym Thursday afternoon, watching medical professionals demonstrate how to treat life-threatening, bleeding wounds with a combination of pressure, packing with gauze and applying tourniquets.
Then they practiced applying the tourniquets on each other, and packing gauze into simulated rubber wounds.
The training, called Stop the Bleed, happened one day after the one-year anniversary of the shooting in Uvalde.
But that wasn’t the focus of trainers, which included physical and occupational therapists, trauma nurses, firefighters and school nurses, among others.
David Nielsen, a paramedic with the San Antonio Fire Department, brought his son and daughter to the training so they could see first hand how to apply the procedures.
“I help teach this course but … they’ll take it more seriously if somebody else is teaching them the course,” he said. “But it’s a skill that I think everybody needs to have, not just students. It’s such a simple skill to learn.”
His son, Garcia Middle School student Liam Nielsen, said he wasn’t sure what to expect going into the training.
“I was kind of nervous, because I don’t really know anything about this,” he said.
After completing the training, he said he feels prepared in the event something were to happen.
Among the useful safety tips he was surprised to learn was leaving impaled objects in when addressing wounds in order to prevent further bleeding.
His father said that he has seen the techniques save lives numerous times when used by bystanders on serious injuries.
Another parent, Jon Lauzon, brought sons 12-year-old Sean and 9-year-old Kyle to learn about the techniques.
Sean recounted the top lines of the training, starting with making sure the area is safe before calling 911 and checking for the source of the bleeding. Pooling or spurting blood is a sign an injury that needs immediate attention, he learned.
“If it is a really deep hole then you stuff it and if it’s [not] you just got to make sure you put pressure on it with a bandage,” he said.
Wounds can be packed with gauze or any other materials on hand, trainers explained.
For arms and legs, Sean said he learned how to apply a tourniquet 2 to 3 inches above the wound. Tourniquets, gauze and other tools can be found in bleed control kits, which are required by law to be in every school.
The elder Lauzon said the knowledge could come in handy for all sorts of situations.
The Stop the Bleed training is required to be offered under Texas law to “school personnel who may be reasonably expected to use a bleeding control station” and also offered to students seventh grade and up. Students are not required to participate in the training, however.
Jamie Sly, a school psychologist for Taft High School also took the training, which is required for teachers.
“I’m just hoping I don’t … ever have to use this but it’s good information to have,” she said, adding that it was disconcerting “that we could potentially face gunshots or knives or things in the schools.”
Developed after one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, which left 26 people dead, the Stop the Bleed training is meant to help prolong life in the initial moments after a shooting or other event.
But Nancy Fox, the health services coordinator for Northside ISD, emphasized the importance of training people in life-saving bleeding control techniques regardless of the situation.
“Bleeding is the number one preventable cause of death after injury,” Fox said. “The more people who know how to stop life-threatening bleeding, the more lives can be saved.”
She said that while it can save lives during a shooting, it can also be used in everyday life
Brandy Martinez, who does injury prevention and community outreach for Brooke Army Medical Center, said practicing the techniques and learning what to expect is important given the limited amount of time to intervene once a serious bleeding event occurs.
“You have about two minutes to really get that bleeding slowed down or stopped before the person just loses too much blood,” she said.
In addition to learning the techniques, trainers advised community members to put tourniquets and gauze in their cars, homes and other places.
Nielsen said that if more people took the time to take a Stop the Bleed training, the safer everyone will be.
“I think there’s a misconception out there with all the training that it’s because of everything that’s going on with the shootings and all,” he said. “But it could be a tree falls on you … or you could break a ceramic dish and cut your arm. It’s all good skills.”
