BLACKSBURG, Va. – From bystander to lifesaver. LewisGale is partnering with Montgomery County Public Schools to teach faculty how to stop severe bleeding during an emergency.
10 News was at Blacksburg Middle School for a training session to learn how faculty are being prepared to save a life.
“We’re here at Blacksburg Middle School today to install a Stop the Bleed kit for the teachers and the nurses to have in case of a bleeding emergency,” Devin Lapuasa, chief nursing officer at LewisGale Hospital Montgomery, said
Stop the Bleed is a program developed by the American College of Surgeons to empower people to go from bystander to lifesaver. The program not only provides kits but also trains people on how to react in a bleeding emergency.
“It’s a very important program to basically train our staff how to help anyone — you know, our students or actually anyone out in the community. Basic, simple, but very important steps that they can use to save a life," Ginny Helton, nurse at Blacksburg Middle School, said.
The kits are mounted on the wall so they can be accessed quickly in an emergency. Faculty at Blacksburg Middle were taught how to apply a tourniquet, treat the wound, and how to use the resources inside the Stop the Bleed kit.
“It is very similar to an AED. They can get it off the wall — it has a tourniquet, it has gauze — so that we can act when something happens, just like you would act in an AED situation," Lapuasa said.
“I’m one nurse for a very large school. So it’s very nice when I have teachers that are trained to support me so that they can know exactly what to do before I can get there and then before EMS can get there eventually,” Helton said.
LewisGale has already supplied several public schools in Montgomery County with the life-saving Stop the Bleed kits and has trained staff at every school.
“They have been so wonderful. They came to the nurse staff meeting at the beginning of the year and did a training for all of the nurses,” Helton said.
“We live and stay in this area because we love it. And we’re very passionate about emergency medicine and the care that we give. And we want to make sure that the teachers, and where our kids are going, and where our community members are going — they have the tools and resources that they need," Lapuasa said.