East-central Illinois participates in Stop the Bleed

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) - Nearly 1,200 school employees in east and central Illinois have been trained since last year on how to stop life-threatening bleeding.

Carle Foundation Hospital's trauma department is offering the national Stop the Bleed campaign training to schools in a 21-county area of east-central Illinois. The hospital is equipping all 302 public school buildings with medical supplies kits to help stop bleeding.

"The number one goal is to make the entire population in the U.S. immediate responders," said Dr. Henry Moore, trauma services medical director and chairman of a trauma committee covering the multi-county region.

He said Carle chose to start training in schools because they've been a top target in active shooter episodes.

The campaign was launched by the White House in 2015 as a national preparedness initiative to share life-saving techniques used by the military and emergency responders with the public, The News-Gazette reported. The campaign came in the wake the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.

The hour-long training teaches a medical response that bystanders can use to save lives in the critical first minutes after a trauma injury.

Rantoul school nurse Sherri White is among those trained. She completed her training in November with octher district nursing staff.

White said the training taught her the importance of people on the front line of a tragedy being prepared to know what to do before the ambulance arrives.

"Hopefully, we won't need to use it," White said.

School nurses in Champaign and Urbana school districts also have been trained. Unit 4 schools spokeswoman Emily Schmit said Stop the Bleed kits have been received by all Champaign schools, and that there's a desire to share the training the district's lead nurse administrator received with other school staff.

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Information from: The News-Gazette, http://www.news-gazette.com