'Stop The Bleed' Campaign Launches In Bartow Schools

CARTERSVILLE, GA — By the second week in April, Bartow County educators will be more prepared than ever to save lives. Teachers are already superheroes, but these real-life crusaders will soon be armed with trauma kits, in addition to their superhuman qualities, to change lives.

The Bartow County School System is pleased to announce a new partnership with Bartow County Emergency Medical Services and Cartersville Medical Center to launch the “Stop the Bleed” campaign. This nationwide program is an initiative of the American College of Surgeons and the Hartford Consensus that was adopted in Georgia last year. It helps train and prepare citizens in the event they witness an emergency bleeding situation.

“If bleeding is severe, it can kill within minutes, potentially before trained responders can arrive,” said Buck Alday, a training officer with Bartow County Emergency Medical Services. “Research has shown that bystanders, with little or no medical training, can become heroic lifesavers.”

The Georgia General Assembly approved funding to train and equip all Georgia public schools with bleeding control kits (For more news like this, find your local Patch here. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app; download the free Patch Android app here).

The small red vinyl bags are loaded with gloves, tourniquets, wound packing materials and an instruction card. Schools are being asked to train a minimum of ten staff members in order to receive the kits. However, district leaders want to raise that number significantly.

“We want to train every corner of our district, from classroom teachers to our nurses and bus drivers,” says Superintendent Dr. John Harper. “We also have a training day scheduled for Central Office employees. This practical and pertinent information needs to be at everyone’s fingertips.”

Training began at Allatoona Elementary School on March 5 and will wrap up at Cass High School on April 11. The rest of the district will be trained over the summer months. Alday is the primary instructor with emergency medical technicians and hospital staff members on hand to assist with demonstrations.

“It comes with a heavy heart that the training is necessary, but at the end of the day, the more people who know how to help, the better we can serve our citizens,” says Alday. “We all must work together.”

Due to state funding, every school or auxiliary department is allowed twelve bleeding control kits. Each school or department will disperse their kits as they see fit.

“We hope that we never have to use the kits, but find comfort in knowing we’re educated and ready if we ever encounter an emergency situation,” noted Heather Black, a fifth-grade reading teacher at Allatoona Elementary School.

Images via Bartow County School System