Advocate Good Samaritan teaches life-saving skills in high school

DOWNERS GROVE – Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital trauma nurses are teaching life-saving emergency skills in the community, including most recently in Community High School District 99.

Good Samaritan registered nurses Lori Chiappetta and Amy Seratt visited Downers Grove North High School to teach nurses from the school and Downers Grove South how to respond when faced with a life-threatening amount of blood loss during a visit to North on April 23.

“Bleeding out is the number one most preventable death in any type of traumatic injury,” Seratt said. “This is something that needs to be addressed because we are losing lives that could be saved.”

The training was held through the national program Stop the Bleed, which is aimed at training bystanders to respond to emergencies. The program was started by the federal government after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012.

Seratt and Chiappetta taught the nurses how to best pack a wound and apply a tourniquet. Seratt has been teaching through the program for more than six months throughout the area.

The skills taught in the class can apply to any number of situations found in or outside a classroom, Chiappetta said, ranging from a broken bone on the playground to injuries sustained in a car accident. By securing the bleeding before first responders arrive, bystanders can help stabilize the patient and expedite later life-saving treatment.

“We want to get out in the community and help teach a new life skill,” Chiappetta said. “CPR is something everyone learns how to do. Stop the Bleed is the next phase of life saving skills - you hope you don’t ever have to use it, but you have to be ready.”

The nurses from both schools said the trainings were very welcomed refreshers and believed the program could benefit people throughout the district and community.

“It makes me feel more prepared, especially because we are in a community setting,” said Maggie Hansen-Hyman of Downers Grove North. “This should become common knowledge.”

Jessica Szostak, one of the student nurses from Elmhurst College working at Downers Grove South, said she would love to see Stop the Bleed be implemented as a part of basic first aid training.

“We don’t talk about these skills in school enough,” she said. “Even giving people the idea that this could happen is great – what happens if your kids are playing and get hurt? What do you do?”

Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital has plans to continue the program throughout the area with other school districts and community organizations in the coming months.