From minor emergencies to major crises, when it comes to safety and security, it’s vital — to life and limb — to be as prepared as possible in the event of the worst situations.

This holds especially true regarding children and classroom safety, where, in the blink of an eye, a simple fall from a playground jungle gym — or a more severe incident — can quickly transform a day of fun and learning into a moment of emergency.

To help keep local schools prepared to save lives in these situations, Tanner Health System partnered with the national STOP THE BLEED® campaign and GoRescue to donate dozens of emergency kits to Roanoke City and Randolph County school systems to equip school officials with emergency medical kits designed to stop blood loss in the event of severe, and sometimes life-threatening, injuries.

During recent city school board meetings, Tanner presented the kits to school administration officials.

“Safety and security are always a top priority for us — in and outside our healthcare facilities,” said Gary Thomas, an emergency and safety specialist and the pice President of campus and support services for Tanner. “This donation helps ensure schools in our communities are equipped with the necessary tools and resources to help save lives during emergencies, ranging from playground injuries to more dire situations.”

The American College of Surgeons' (ACS) STOP THE BLEED® program is administered by the ACS Committee on Trauma and was developed in cooperation with the United States Department of Defense.

The STOP THE BLEED® campaign was initiated by a federal inter-agency workgroup convened by the National Security Council Staff and The White House. The campaign aims to build national resilience by better preparing the public to save lives by raising awareness of basic actions to stop life-threatening bleeding following everyday emergencies and artificial and natural disasters. Advances made by military medicine and research in hemorrhage control during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have informed the work of this initiative, which exemplifies the translation of knowledge back to the homeland to benefit the general public.

The STOP THE BLEED campaign also provides a specialized training curriculum for teachers and school officials, certifying them in the use of the emergency kits. The training will be delivered to the individual Randolph County schools by certified instructors from Tanner Health System.

Minutes count!

A person who is severely bleeding can bleed to death in as little as five minutes. The purpose of the STOP THE BLEED® training is to train and prepare individuals to control blood loss, keeping blood inside the body, during emergencies.

“We love these partnerships because they give us another opportunity to give back to our community and help protect the health, safety and wellness of the communities we serve — especially for the students and educators inside our schools,” said Heather Stitcher, RN, MSN, the administrator and director of nursing for Tanner Medical Center/East Alabama.

GoRescue Brands, Inc. (formerly Educational Associates of Alabama, Inc.) was launched in 1997 in Birmingham, Alabama, to deliver lifesaving products and train clients in need.

“We developed these kits after all the terrible active shooter situations that have happened at schools across our country,” said Rusty Lowe, a representative from GoRescue. 

Lowe explained that blood loss is another major cause of casualty in emergencies.

Each bleeding control kit comes ready to use in a sealed pouch with a tourniquet, QuickClot, sterile gloves and a mini compression bandage — so each kit can be used quickly in an emergency.

Learn more about the STOP THE BLEED® campaign at www.stopthebleed.org.

Learn more about the products and services of GoRescue at www.gorescue.com

Learn more about Tanner and its community partnerships at www.tanner.org.