News

Harrisonville, MO – Cass Regional Medical Center has donated Stop the Bleed stations to five Cass County school districts, including Harrisonville, Pleasant Hill, Sherwood, Archie and Drexel. Stations will be installed in multiple buildings in each school district, as determined by each superintendent.

Each station contains an easy-to-open nylon carrying case containing eight individual bleeding control kits packaged in vacuum-sealed pouches, along with one North American Rescue (NAR) QuikLitter for moving injured casualties. Each individual bleeding control kit contains tools proven to help save lives, such as the Combat Application Tourniquet (C-A-T), pressure dressings and gauze bandages. The carrying case is placed in a wall-mounted clear storage case that provides high visibility access.

Cass Regional donated the stations as part of its overall commitment to the national Stop the Bleed campaign, which is aimed at educating first responders, teachers, and the public about bleeding control. Cass Regional’s trauma coordinator, Paula McBride, RN, CEN, led the Stop the Bleed program training for teachers and staff at each school district.

Victims can quickly die from uncontrolled bleeding, within 5 to 10 minutes. However, with proper training anyone at the scene can act as an immediate responder. The Stop the Bleed program includes instruction and practice on proper bleeding control techniques, including how to use your hands, dressings, and tourniquets. Anyone who takes the class gets a certificate of completion from the American College of Surgeons.

“Our children spend the majority of their young lives at school. Accidents resulting in uncontrolled hemorrhage can happen anywhere and result in loss of life in as little as five minutes. Most of the time first responders are not available in those first five minutes. Therefore, I feel it is imperative we have trained personnel in the schools to deal with these types of emergencies,” said McBride.

Cass Regional Medical Center also provides free Stop the Bleed classes and supplies for organizations, schools, businesses, civic groups and individuals in or around Cass County. “The number one cause of preventable death from trauma is uncontrolled bleeding, so if we can familiarize as many people as possible with techniques to identify life-threatening hemorrhaging, then we can save lives,” said McBride.

Cass Regional Medical Center hosts free Stop the Bleed educational programs on the first Tuesday of each month, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., in Conference Rooms 1 and 2, located directly inside the main entrance of Cass Regional at 2800 E. Rock Haven Road in Harrisonville. For more information, please call Paula McBride, RN, CEN, at (816) 380-3474, ext. 3841.