Program has empowered more than 5,500 people across Vermont with life-saving training to stop bleeding in traumatic scenarios
Vermont Business Magazine Whether it is during a sporting event, a recreational outing with friends and family, or an everyday activity like yard work or driving to the store, knowing how to both spot the signs of life-threatening bleeding and what you can do to STOP THE BLEED, can help save lives in an emergency.
“We never know when an emergency situation might arise,” said Christine Dillon, Injury Prevention Coordinator at UVM Medical Center and Vermont State Coordinator of the hospital’s STOP THE BLEED program, an educational initiative from the American College of Surgeons. “Being able to help someone else, as well as ourselves, is very important.”
Dillon said that no matter how rapidly emergency responders arrive on-scene at an accident or in response to a traumatic injury, bystanders are almost always able to make a positive impact.
“Bystanders will always be first on the scene,” she said, “and in an emergency, you as a bystander have the ability to save a life. Twenty percent of people who have died from traumatic injuries could have survived if they had more quickly received bleeding control treatment.”
A routine wipeout on a Vermont slalom course put skier Jonathan Davis’ life in the balance in 2019, after a laceration damaged major arteries in one of his legs and resulted in life-threatening bleeding. Davis was saved by bystanders who quickly applied a tourniquet to his injured leg, crediting UVM Medical Center’s Stop the Bleed training program with giving them the knowledge to come to the young skier’s aid.
After a car crash, Vermonter Tristan M. said his then-recent completion of the Medical Center’s STOP THE BLEED program helped him spot and react to life-threatening bleeding at the scene of the accident. Tristan said that without the hospital’s training program, he wouldn’t have known that the injured drive needed a tourniquet. He now carries a tourniquet and a stop-the-bleed kit, which includes trauma dressing, gauze, gloves and other bleeding control items, in his vehicle at all times.
“You never know when it might be needed, and you never know when it might make a difference,” he said.
As communities observe National STOP THE BLEED Day on Thursday, Dillon said UVM Medical Center’s STOP THE BLEED program, which over the course of four years has educated more than 5,500 people across Vermont on the latest techniques to stop life-threatening bleeding, continues to offer free courses to both groups and the general public.
“It’s a simple training that takes less than an hour. Getting your hands on a tourniquet and using it properly – learning how to use compression to stop bleeding from trauma – is really empowering,” said Dillon. “People are also often surprised by how the technique has changed.”
The training course is free and consists of a presentation, opportunities for discussion, and a hands-on learning station. In addition to learning the skills needed to control bleeding after an injury, participants also have the option to continue STOP THE BLEED training and become instructors themselves. More than 580 program participants have chosen to become STOP THE BLEED instructors, said Dillon.
Dillon said that even those who have already had training in dealing with traumatic injuries and how to control bleeding in emergency situations should have their training refreshed every couple years. She encourages members of the community to sign up and receive the training, so they are prepared in case of an emergency.
“Anybody can save a life and has the ability to do so with just some easy training,” she said.
For more information about UVM Medical Center’s STOP THE BLEED Training Program, please email [email protected]
About the University of Vermont Medical Center
The University of Vermont Medical Center is a 499-bed tertiary care regional referral center providing advanced care to approximately 1 million residents in Vermont and northern New York. Together with our partners at the Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont and the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, we are Vermont’s academic medical center. The University of Vermont Medical Center also serves as a community hospital for approximately 150,000 residents in Chittenden and Grand Isle counties.
The University of Vermont Medical Center is a member of The University of Vermont Health Network, an integrated system established to deliver high quality academic medicine to every community we serve.
For more information visit www.UVMHealth.org/MedCenter or visit our Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and blog sites at www.UVMHealth.org/MedCenterSocialMedia.
Source: 5.24.2023. BURLINGTON, Vt. – UVMMC
