Program trains teachers, officials to stop bad bleeds

Tonia Willis is a visual learner. Led by Jason Lewis’ instruction, she velcroed a blue tourniquet shut on her thigh and turned the windlass rod until her leg started to go numb. 

Willis, the director of the ASPIRE program at Oglethorpe County Primary and Elementary schools, is one of many school officials around Georgia to receive Stop the Bleed training.

“We hope that we never have to use any of the things that we learned today, but we just want to be prepared,” Willis said.

Stop the Bleed is a national organization that provides training to educate the public on how to handle a significant bleed. 

Lewis, director of Oglethorpe County’s Emergency Medical Services, said uncontrolled bleeding is the leading cause of preventable death worldwide. Oglethorpe County is one of the statewide pilot partners for this program, promoted in partnership with the Georgia Trauma Commission.

The training for ASPIRE staff took place in Oglethorpe County Primary School’s cafeteria on Nov. 7. ASPIRE is an after-school tutoring and academic enrichment program for children in the county grades K-5. 

Seated at child-sized tables, nine staff members from ASPIRE, including Willis, watched as Lewis demonstrated how to use a tourniquet and pack a bleeding wound. Lewis is adamant about the importance of emergency preparedness in rural communities. 

“Folks in the community know where they live,” he said. “They know that we’re a rural community and the ambulance is not always right next door.”

Medical traumas, like severe bleeding, make up approximately 15-17% of calls received by the Oglethorpe County EMS, according to Lewis’ estimates. But he said severe bleeds can’t be fixed by emergency medical personnel.

“We can only bridge the gap,” Lewis said. “Generally, severe bleeds require surgery.”

Stop the Bleed, in partnership with the Georgia Trauma Commission (GTC), placed bleeding control kits in the hands of emergency services coordinators. They contain a tourniquet, emergency trauma dressing, two rolls of gauze, two pairs of nitrile gloves, trauma shears and a nylon bag. 

The commission tasked local EMS agencies, fire departments and other emergency agencies with educating public school officials on how to handle a severe bleed. 

The program began in March 2017 as a response to an increasing number of mass shootings. Later that year, the U.S. saw its deadliest mass shooting when 58 were killed and 546 were injured in Las Vegas. 

The initiative breaks the state into 10 regions. Oglethorpe County is in Region 10, where Crystal Shelnutt is the coordinator of the Regional Trauma Advisory Council. 

“We have a 98% completion rate on the state school program, and Region 10 is 100% complete,” Shelnutt said. “All public schools have received training and received the kits.”

Two successful deployments of Stop the Bleed equipment have been reported in Region 10 schools in Shelnutt’s two years as coordinator. Both had positive outcomes. 

“One is enough, two is great,” Shelnutt said.

GTC has trained over 100,000 individuals and distributed more than 40,000 kits statewide.

At the September GTC meeting, Shelnutt and other coordinators said they wanted to take the Stop the Bleed program beyond schools.

“We presented a proposal to the commission that we would like to increase the reach of the Stop the Bleed program and include other partners, like county and state government employees, local fire departments, local law enforcement and public post secondary institutions,” Shelnutt said.

Lewis and Shelnutt have worked together to provide Stop the Bleed training and kits across Oglethorpe County. 

“It really sets the bar high for all of the other programs that are getting this expanded project,” Shelnutt said. 

Lewis said Oglethorpe County EMS is working to identify other groups that would benefit from Stop the Bleed training.

“We’ve already extended it to all of the volunteer fire departments … and now we’re trying to get those groups that haven’t had it somewhere else,” Lewis said. 

That includes reaching after-school programs like ASPIRE. Oglethorpe County High School’s archery and shotgun teams also received Stop the Bleed training in November. 

Stop the Bleed is funded by GTC. These funds come from portions of Super Speeder fines, which come from tickets for going 75 mph or more on a two-lane road or at 85 mph and above on any road or highway, and taxes on fireworks sales. Shelnutt said the idea behind funding is that it comes from those most likely to require access to the trauma system. 

There are a limited number of kits available to Lewis, but he said he can request more from GTC and no local funding is required. 

In an ideal world, Lewis would get these kits into the hands of the general public, but he’s focused on giving them to groups with the most need. Bleeding control kits are in county school buses, but Lewis’ goal is to place one in every county vehicle. 

GTC has also negotiated with North American Rescue to provide a discount to any Georgia resident who wants a kit. Residents can purchase a kit for $39.98 through the Georgia Stop the Bleed website. 

Lewis said he hasn’t observed any immediate results of the Stop the Bleed training and likely won’t see a quantifiable benefit for many years.

“Hopefully we're giving folks information that they carry through their life,” he said. “We may not see (the benefit) this year or next year, but the benefit may be 15 years from now.”