North Oaks Shock Trauma Offers Free STOP THE BLEED® Training Course

First responders are equipped with lifesaving expertise and resources to rapidly arrive on the scene of emergencies resulting in traumatic injuries, but even so, a person who has suffered a trauma and is bleeding can die from blood loss within 5 minutes if efforts are not made to control it.

Recognizing that bystanders are actually very often first on the scene of a trauma, the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma, along with the Hartford Consensus (comprised of representatives from the federal government, law enforcement and the medical field), created the STOP THE BLEED® emergency training course following the Sandy Hook tragedy in 2012. The goal of the course is to teach members of the public proper techniques to control life-threatening bleeding after an injury until professional help arrives.

Utilizing the teaching tools and resources of this program, the North Oaks Medical Center Level II Shock Trauma Center team is offering a free STOP THE BLEED® emergency training course for the public on Tuesday, August 16, from 6-7:30 p.m. The training will be held in the E. Brent Dufreche Conference Center, located within North Oaks Diagnostic Center at 15837 Paul Vega, M.D, Drive in Hammond. Pre-register here or by calling (985) 230-6647 for assistance.

Course participants will learn how to recognize life-threatening bleeding and properly use dressings, tourniquets and their own hands to control blood loss regardless of the cause. Controlling blood loss with these techniques can help give trauma victims a fighting chance and buy time to transport them to a hospital to receive treatment.

Uncontrolled bleeding is the number one cause of preventable death from trauma and responsible for approximately 40% of all pre-hospital deaths worldwide, according to Dr. Marquinn Duke, medical director of North Oaks Shock Trauma Center.

To date, more than 2.1 million people worldwide have been trained to STOP THE BLEED®.

North Oaks Shock Trauma Center is verified and designated a Level II Trauma Center by the American College of Surgeons and Louisiana Department of Health.

In addition, North Oaks Shock Trauma Center is part of the Louisiana Emergency Response Network (LERN), an agency of state government created to develop and maintain a statewide system of care coordination for trauma patients.

For more information about North Oaks Shock Trauma Center, call North Oaks Public Relations at (985) 230-6647.