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(MINOT, ND)—  It’s a skill we all may need one day – how to stop uncontrolled bleeding due to a car crash, farm accident, or everyday emergency.

Trinity Health has joined the nationwide campaign, “Stop the Bleed,” offering a series of training sessions between now and November to teach community members the basics of how to stop life-threatening bleeding. Additional classes will be scheduled for 2019.

“Uncontrolled bleeding is the leading cause of preventable death due to trauma,” said Rhonda Gunderson, RN, BSN, Trinity Health’s Trauma Program Manager. “Stop the Bleed is designed to empower a bystander without medical knowledge to take action if faced with a situation in which someone is injured and bleeding. It’s a skill everyone can easily be taught when they take the course. Having the training to control bleeding until help arrives could save a life.”

Stop the Bleed is a national initiative launched in 2015 following a series of mass casualty events. The American College of Surgeons convened a multi-disciplinary committee that drew expertise from medical groups, the military, law enforcement, and others. The committee produced a set of simple steps that people can easily learn and follow if confronted with a bleeding injury. A shorthand way to remember the steps is to think of the ABCs of bleeding:

• Alert – Call 9-1-1.
• Bleeding – Locate the bleeding injury.
• Compress – Stop bleeding by whatever method is most successful. (Examples: Apply direct pressure, apply a tourniquet, or pack the wound and then apply pressure.)

“Each of the steps reflects an overarching principle,” Gunderson said. “No one should die from uncontrolled bleeding as long as someone is nearby who can act.”

Stop the Bleed classes are open to any member of the public and are scheduled September 10, October 15, and November 5 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at Trinity Health Center – Riverside, 1900 8th Avenue SE (west of the Clarion Hotel). A $20 fee may be paid at the time of the class. Each student will receive a Bleeding Control Kit upon completion of the class. Space is limited. To register or for more information, call Trinity Trauma Services at (701) 857-5700.