During weekly training on Monday, May 7, 2018, Po-Mar-Lin volunteers attended Stop The Bleed, a campaign designed to teach civilians and first responders with little or no medical training how to stop traumatic bleeding before the arrival of EMS.

The instructor, Tammy Whiteman of Medic 94, emphasized that in the world we live in today, with mass casualty events (including mass shootings), everyone should have traumatic bleeding training. She said the only thing more tragic than a death from bleeding is a death that could have been prevented.

Whiteman talked through some major points about how to stop bleeding, including the ABCs of bleeding: Alert, Bleeding, and Compress.

A: alert - call 911 (for civilians) or additional EMS resources for first responders on the scene.
B: Bleeding- find the bleeding. Sometimes the wound isn’t always obvious, especially if there’s just a pool of blood. If there’s an entry wound from a bullet, there might be an exit wound.
C: Compress- apply pressure to the wound or a tourniquet above the wound until the bleeding stops.

Some concepts were new to some members and a helpful review to others. Either way, it’s always good to remember that your safety is first and everyone on the apparatus goes home, wear appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE), and if you can’t see it, you can’t treat it.

Members then got some hands-on training and practiced applying tourniquets on each other’s arms and legs and took turns learning how to pack a wound and apply pressure.

In the near future, the company will start carrying tourniquets and large dressings on many of the apparatus.