Learn how to "Stop the Bleed"

The trauma team at Antelope Valley Medical Center (AVMC) is teaching community members how to recognize life-threatening bleeding and administer appropriate medical treatment until emergency personnel arrive. "Stop the Bleed" is a national campaign launched in response to mass-casualty events.

The free, 90-minute course teaches participants how to:

• Recognize life-threatening bleeding.
• Apply direct pressure to a bleeding wound.
• Properly use a tourniquet.
• Pack a wound.
• Create a "Stop the Bleed" kit for the car, home or workplace.

The training is offered monthly on the hospital campus. Businesses, churches, schools and other groups also can arrange to have the class taught at their location with a minimum of eight participants. For a calendar of upcoming dates, visit AVMC.org or follow AV Hospital on Facebook. To schedule a customized class within the community, contact Jeremiah Johns, RN, AVMC’s trauma clinical coordinator, at 661-949-5677 or jeremiah.johns@AVMC.org.

The next scheduled class will be held Tuesday, February 27, at 5:30 p.m. at the Antelope Valley Medical Center Community Resource Center – 44151 15th Street West, Lancaster. Click here to Register through the hospital’s Facebook page.

"We want to empower bystanders to help in a bleeding emergency, which can happen anywhere at any time," said Johns. "Effectively controlling bleeding immediately after a serious injury may mean the difference between life and death."

"Stop the Bleed" was developed by the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma to teach the civilian population to provide vital initial response to stop uncontrolled bleeding in an emergency situation. A victim who is bleeding from an artery can die in as little as three minutes, and serious bleeding from an extremity is the most frequent cause of preventable death from an injury.