Cops teach residents to ‘Stop the Bleed’
Stop the Bleed class participant Steve Morgan practices wound-packing techniques as Redondo Police Officer Ryan Harrison looks on. Photo
While Redondo Beach Police Officer Lauren McNeely settled in to tighten a tourniquet on fellow officer Ryan Harrison’s right arm, Harrison steeled his face. He had just warned the room full of students in RBPD’s first annual Stop the Bleed class that tourniquets, when applied properly, hurt – and hurt a lot.
McNeely torqued down, Harrison grimaced and students groaned. Within a minute, Harrison’s right hand was clearly pale, proof that the tourniquet had done its job in cutting down blood flow. Had Harrison been suffering from a deep wound to that arm, McNeely might have just saved his life.
RBPD’s Stop the Bleed classes were part of a nation-wide effort to train the public in controlling bleeds in worst-case scenarios. The federally funded initiative was created in 2015 to prevent death by hemorrhage. Blood loss, McNeely said, is the leading cause of preventable death in trauma.
“These skills are not restricted to active-shooter incidents, or mass casualties,” Harrison said. “Most of the time, these are household injuries… if kids are running and decide to jump through a plate-glass window, that’s where this training may apply.”
The class was taught by McNeely and Harrison, with assistance from Redondo Beach Fire Captain Curt Mahoney and a trauma surgeon from Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. It offered both theory and hands-on training to participants using simulation dummies.
Participants learned the signs of severe bleeding, how to properly apply pressure with gauze, set tourniquets and pack wounds.
It was just the right amount of detail, said participant Steve Morgan, who was there with his son Kane, a freshman at Redondo Union High School.
“I feel confident that if someone is hurt, if I came upon an accident, that I’d know what to do by acting quickly,” Morgan said. “They kept it simple, succinct and practical.”
The training piggybacked off of recent Run-Hide-Fight training given by RBPD officers at Redondo Beach schools, as well as the tactical-medical training that Redondo officers have undergone.
“We’ve got teachers trained, students trained, and now we’re getting the rest of the community to help best survive the worst-case, or every-day household injuries,” Harrison said.