The Stop the Bleed movement — Will you be ready?

Dr. Eileen Bulger wants you to know CPR is no longer enough.

After what was a pilot project with non trauma employees at UW Medicine, more than 250 people have signed up for these two to three hour classes. The Stop the Bleed movement is held free on certain Saturdays during the month at the Harborview Injury Prevention & Research Center in Seattle.

With the recent turn of mass shootings and various attacks, the chief of trauma at Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center believes ordinary citizens need essential life-saving skills and first-aid knowledge to assist during acts of terrorism and public violence.

The mission of this program is to reduce the impact of injury and violence on people’s lives through research, education, training and public awareness. An initially local movement, Stop the Bleed has grown to a national effort to prepare more people to respond to shootings, bombings and other threats that have become a part of American life. The White House has included it as part of an initiative that will put the knowledge of first responders into the hands of the public.

This year alone, Washington state has witnessed seven mass shootings. According to the nonprofit organization Gun Violence Archive, in 2015, the U.S. had 372 incidents in which four or more people were killed or seriously wounded along with a toll of 474 deaths and 1,870 recorded injuries.

D’Andre Williams, a UWT Student, is all for the movement. He says “any kind of preventative measures, no amount of knowledge is enough so a moment such as this is proactive and necessary.”

Dr. Bulger, along with others in the communities across the country, are taking this message to the public:

“If you watch the news every day, you would know that we have a lot of events in this country where a lot of people get injured, or worse,” Bulger stated. “Somebody can bleed to death in four minutes or less…there are circumstances where the person next to you is probably the best person to save your life.”

It is encouraged that everyone takes this course as learning to control bleeding is an essential skill that anyone can apply to save lives.