Equipped, prepared, life saving
MN prepares for a bleeding emergency by purchasing bleed kits
During 2018, 94 school incidents such as school shootings, were reported across Ameri- ca. In response to this, bleeding kits have been installed across numerous schools in the U.S. the last month, including MN.
Bleeding kits are used in bleeding emergencies, which provide the materials needed to stop the bleeding while waiting for professional responders to arrive.
Injuries leading to bleeding emergencies usually involve blood found on the limb or tor-
so.
“I’ve known a particular case in another school where they didn’t have a bleeding kit on hand so they had to use their shirts and whatever else to stop the bleeding. So, in a case like having bleeding kits around the school, someone could grab a bleeding kit and it’ll save the person, helping them in the long run,” nurse Karen Horton said.
In a bleeding emergency, a bystander closest to the person bleeding may be the only person who can make a difference between life and
death. It’s known that severe bleeding can lead to death under five minutes before an ambulance gets to the victim.
Schools started putting bleeding kits in their halls since the White House “Stop the Bleed” National Awareness Campaign in 2015. It was made to encourage bystanders to help in a bleeding emergency before professional help arrives.
Using money from the building activities monies, Horton put together MN’s bleeding kits last month.
“I had to purchase everything and fill the bags with what was necessary for the kits. You can buy the kits already made, but it was cheap- er to do it the way I did it, and it took me about an hour to get them all to put together,” Horton said.
Bleeding kits can be found in the AEDs outside the library, outside the health room, the west wall of the lunchroom, and the northwest wall of the Mustang Center.
These kits can also be found outside of AEDs at the industrial tech. area, foreign language office upstairs, English break room upstairs, science office upstairs, and the social
studies office downstairs.
“The reason the bleeding kits are getting
more and more popular is because of the violence in the communities at schools, gunshots, knife wounds, just anything that would be necessary to have a bleeding kit,” Horton said.
These bleeding kits will help MN prepare for any bleeding emergency that may happen later on in the future.