BETHLEHEM —The Police Department will hold a Stop the Bleed course for town residents on Thursday, Nov. 14 to teach ways to manage life-threatening bleeding.
Happening at Town Hall on 445 Delaware Ave. in Delmar, it will start at 7 p.m. and people are encouraged to RSVP to Sgt. Mike Whiteley at 518-439-9973 ext. 1360 or [email protected].
Stop the Bleed is a nationwide initiative by the American College of Surgeons and the Hartford Consensus that seeks to educate people on how they can save a life when faced with a bleeding emergency by using clotting bandages and tourniquets. BPD Chief Louis Corsi said the department has partnered with Delmar-Bethlehem EMS for the Nov. 14 event.
That night, people can expect a 45-minute PowerPoint presentation by a certified Stop the Bleed instructor and then have hands-on time working with life-saving equipment as well as everyday objects to tend to a bleeding victim.
BPD Commander Adam Hornick said, “Equipment people may have in everyday life that can help as well are like towels and items of clothing. There is a technique to putting something over an area to stop the bleeding and how to properly do it and find pressure points.”
He added, “About a year ago, we started training our officers with tourniquets and everything else in their emergency supply kits. Now it’s come to another step where we’re bringing it up to the public and we’ve also been training with school nurses at the school district.”
Bethlehem police officers have been equipped with emergency supply kits since November 2018 to help save lives and improve response time while emergency servicesare still traveling to the scene. The result of a collaboration between BPD and Delmar-Bethlehem EMS again, each kit contains supplies like trauma shears, a rescue blanket, four tourniquets, a CPR mask, Band-Aids and tape. Each kit has been placed in BPD vehicles to benefit both officers and victims.
Corsi said that while BPD has done a variety of public educational events for residents, this is the first bleeding-related event. “Any time you can put a life-saving effort out there, that benefits the community and so, we’re usually at the scene first and if we can mitigate the bleeding, the chances of surviving increase greatly. So it’s important for us,” he added.
Hornick concluded, “It’s a great opportunity for the public to learn a valuable skill and it doesn’t take a lot of their time. But you never know when you’re going to need it.”
