National Stop the Bleed Day Offers Free First Aid Training

National Stop the Bleed Day is on March 31, 2018. This event is a nationwide, free course on the principles of bleeding control and providing first aid until the arrival of emergency responders.

The program was commissioned by the White House following the Sandy Hook disaster in Newtown, Connecticut. A joint committee of emergency responders, law enforcement, and physicians developed a national policy on increasing survivability following mass-casualty events called the Hartford Consensus. The consensus found that victims of trauma are susceptible to critical blood loss before first responders can reach the scene, and that immediate bystander care is critical in preventing survivable death, illustrated by the statistics below:

• Traumatic injury is the leading cause of death for people below age 46
• 35% of pre-hospital deaths are due to blood loss
• 80% of victims in a mass casualty event are transported to the hospital by members of the public
• Death due to traumatic bleeding can occur in less than five minutes
• The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) states that emergency response should begin within five minutes 
• National EMS Response times often exceed the NFPA target times
• Of the 147,000 trauma deaths in 2014, 30,000 might have survived with appropriate care, primarily control of bleeding

The Stop the Bleed initiative has mutual involvement from the White House, the Department of Homeland Security, and the American College of Surgeons, who recognize that everyone has the power to stop life-threatening bleeding caused by injuries in the home, industrial settings, or mass-casualty events. State and local government, medical groups and healthcare organizations, regional and local first responders, and state coordinators share a mutual interest to inform the public that this training is available to all. 

National Stop the Bleed Day is a grassroots initiative to raise awareness for the official Stop the Bleed program. The objective of National Stop the Bleed Day 2018 is to connect potential Stop the Bleed students with instructors willing to donate their time for a day of free training. Our effort is currently supported by the National Associate of Emergency Medical Technicians (NAEMT) and the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF).

Lend your support by sharing this information with your agency or with local constituents that would like to learn this important skill to potentially save the lives of others or even themselves. In doing so, it will help accomplish three goals:

• Raise awareness for the program through all available means
• Identify Stop The Bleed instructors who can deliver the material on National Stop The Bleed Day, March 31st, 2018
• Partner with organizations that can offer space for classes or donations of class materials, such as approved tourniquets and gauze.

Visit the following websites for more information:

• https://www.stopthebleedday.org
• https://www.bleedingcontrol.org
• https://www.dhs.gov/stopthebleed  

References:
The Hartford Consensus - Background on National Stop the Bleed Day, White House National Resilience initiative, Trauma statistics 
The National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health - Bleeding Control statistics
National Fire Protection Association Code 1710 Section 4.1.2.1 (2) (6) (7) - Response times for medical emergencies