Injury Prevention Programs

Alan Van Zandt-Dominguez: Sometimes, though, a person with a serious injury needs help before first responders can arrive.

And if you're the one there when something happens, it might be your actions that make the difference between someone living or dying.

As I recently learned on a recent segment of our sister show, Morning Medical update, there are some easy life-saving tips we all can learn to help stop the bleed.

Well, we all know CPR is a life-saving skill many people can perform. But there are also some other things we can learn how to do ourselves might save a life knowing how to stop the bleed as one of them when someone might be losing blood from a cut or even a gun shot or some other injury.

We have Israel Mendoza here today.

He's a trauma education specialist. He's here to help us understand. Thank you for being here today.

Israel Mendoza: Thank you for having me.

Alan Van Zandt-Dominguez: So, stop the bleed. That is the key to saving lives.

Israel Mendoza: That is.

Alan Van Zandt-Dominguez: There is a right way to do it.

Israel Mendoza: There is a right way to do it and we teach people three basic skills on how to do it during the class.

Alan Van Zandt-Dominguez: Let's start with number one.

Israel Mendoza: Yeah. So, the first one is putting pressure. Pressure on the wound.

Alan Van Zandt-Dominguez: OK. We see in the movies whether someone gets shot or something else that they're always putting pressure on the wound. But are they doing it right?

Israel Mendoza: A lot of them show an appropriate way, but there is definitely a more appropriate method of doing it.

Alan Van Zandt-Dominguez: Let's learn the best way right now. We've got a little dummy right here with an injury.

Israel Mendoza: Yes, quite an injury here and turning it back to CPR. The way that I like to show it is you perform one live saving compression to a person. You put your entire body weight on that wound and then you stay there and you do not move until help arrives.

Alan Van Zandt-Dominguez: So while we learn CPR, we learn about the 15 short compressions. This is just one big compression. Everything you got.

Israel Mendoza: Yes. Everything you have.

Alan Van Zandt-Dominguez: All right. So you would get on like this, you'd put a hand on top…

Israel Mendoza: Put your other hand, put your entire body weight, and then you would stay there. And I also tell people no peeking. You want to stay there until help arrives.

Alan Van Zandt-Dominguez: So I can't be looking around. Got to be keep focused.

Israel Mendoza: You can't move your hands. You can’t peek to make sure that it stopped.

Alan Van Zandt-Dominguez: OK. So that's one way to do it.

Israel Mendoza: That’s one way to do it.

Alan Van Zandt-Dominguez: Say there's a worse injury and we hear of tourniquets, also, we see them fastening tourniquets with belts and with sheets in the movies. That's probably not the most appropriate way of doing it.

Israel Mendoza: And so that is one thing that we teach people that is not the best way to do it. While you can use a sheet or a towel to provide compression, we really encourage people to use approved tourniquets for stopping the bleed as have been specially made so that they are tight and stop.

Alan Van Zandt-Dominguez: And so this is one of those approved tourniquets. It looks like just a little fastener here. It's pretty simple thing to do and if you have one of these then how do you apply a tourniquet?

Israel Mendoza: So we teach you in class the proper ways to go through this. Usually takes less than 10 seconds and in less than 10 seconds you can save someone's life from bleeding out.

Alan Van Zandt-Dominguez: You'd mentioned a third way as well.

Israel Mendoza: The third way would include packing with compression. If you notice that the wound is fairly deep, you can always pack it with whatever you have. Not everyone has commercial gauze available.

But you can use a t-shirt, towels, anything that you have that might be porous.

Alan Van Zandt-Dominguez: And you can learn more about that in your Stop the bleeding classes that you have.

Israel Mendoza: Yes, you sure can. And, so, we have scheduled stop the bleed courses here at the KU campus. You can check out more information at stopthebleed.org which tells you more about what the mission is and what this program is all about. You can also find more classes that we host here at KU, but you can also use the QR code on this screen to schedule a course. Go out to anywhere out in the metro of Kansas City and small groups, big groups happy to teach anyone.

Alan Van Zandt-Dominguez: Have tourniquet, will travel.

Israel Mendoza: Yes.

Alan Van Zandt-Dominguez: All right, now, who would these classes be good for?

Israel Mendoza: So, these classes are good for anyone. Anyone that is wanting to learn a life-saving skill. Trauma is the number one cause of death – and preventable death – in anyone ages 1-44 nationwide. And bleeding is the number one cause of preventable death in any injury.

Alan Van Zandt-Dominguez: Well, let's check out that QR code get signed up for a Stop The Bleed class. Israel Mendoza, thank you for being with us today.

Israel Mendoza: No problem. Thank you for having me.