As the weather warms up, so do outdoor accidents — especially when using chainsaws and lawnmowers.
Bleeding is the number one preventable cause of death in injured people.
Lawrence and Memorial Hospital in New London, part of Yale New Haven Health, runs free courses to teach people how to stop and control bleeding.
Pat Davis is a course tutor and paramedic.
“Since someone can bleed out and pass within 3-5 minutes of not being able to control the bleeding, that's a lot faster than emergency services can respond,” Davis said. “So, we're trying to teach as many people as we can to just try to stem that from somebody bleeding to death and potentially saving a life.”
The course teaches people how to pack a wound, apply pressure and use a tourniquet.
Terri LeBlanc from Mystic attended a class.
“I think when you see somebody bleeding, like, at first, you're not really sure what to do. Like, what should I do? Should I put pressure again? What’s the difference between needing a tourniquet or just applying pressure or packing a wound? I think anything that you can learn something about, especially an unfamiliar subject, I think is always helpful and important. So yes, I would encourage it,” LeBlanc said.
Course details can be found here.
