ST. MARYS, Ga. – Uncontrolled post-trauma bleeding is the leading cause of potentially preventable death among trauma patients, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The national awareness campaign, Stop the Bleed, is training bystanders to stop bleeding by applying tourniquets before paramedics arrive.
Georgia is the first state to offer these kits and training to every public school.
The kits include gloves, compressed gauze and trauma dressing, shears, a pad, tape and a tourniquet.
A person can bleed out in two-to-eight minutes, so a properly applied tourniquet can save their life.
"The sooner that a tourniquet is applied to a life-threatening injury, the greater the chances of survival from the injury goes up,” said Denise Clement, Camden County schools health services coordinator.
Clement said the Georgia Trauma Commission funded and donated more than 29,000 bleeding-control kits to Georgia public schools with the requirement of training at least 10 staff members per school.
More than 62,000 Georgia educators have been trained so far. The next phase will be to train all staff members and bus drivers.
“The training consists of how to identify life-threatening bleeding, and when they should and when they should not use a tourniquet,” Clements said.
There are 12 Stop the Bleed kits throughout St. Marys Middle School. The bleeding control kits have saved three lives so far -- from playground injuries, a stabbing and another accident.
Clary Minnick, an eighth-grader at St. Mary’s Middle School, is already CPR and AED certified and will soon be learning how to apply a tourniquet.
"It makes me feel safe and I'm very excited to know that I can come to school and if that were to happen to me or someone else, that they could be saved," Minnick said.
The training is provided by volunteer nurses, doctors, EMS and Homeland Security.