Vestavia Hills school system, police recognized for public safety efforts

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Vestavia Hills City Schools and the Vestavia Hills Police Department are on the cutting edge of national public safety efforts to stop people from bleeding to death, the executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers said today.

The Vestavia Hills school system became among the first in the country to buy bleeding control kits to install in all its schools, said Mo Canady, who leads the national organization based in Hoover.

The school system purchased 30 of the kits and this summer put 21 of them next to every automated external defibrillator (AED) that is used to treat cardiac arrest, said David Howard, director of administrative services for Vestavia Hills schools. Nine more were bought for each school nurse to have one, Howard said.

The Vestavia Hills Fire Department trained the school nurses how to use them, and the nurses in turn will train other school personnel, Howard said.

Canady today also recognized the Vestavia Hills Police Department, which bought 82 mass casualty bags so each of its police officers could have bleeding control tools, too.

Across the nation, surgeons, first responders and public safety officials are pushing for more schools and public buildings to install the bleeding control kits because too many people are bleeding to death when their deaths could be prevented by simple actions.

This was the topic of discussion today at a forum at the Hoover Public Safety Center attended by about 50 police, fire and corporate officials.

Dr. Patrick Bosarge, a trauma surgeon at UAB Hospital, said hemorrhage – or bleeding – accounts for 40 percent of all trauma deaths, so the medical community is now advocating putting bleeding control kits right alongside those AEDs that are present in so many public buildings today.

Common tools in the kits include combat gauze used to pack wounds, gloves, shears and a tourniquet to stop the flow of blood through veins or arteries.

The push for these tools was spurred by the increase in intentional mass-casualty events such as the Boston Marathon bombing and mass shootings in schools, theaters and shopping malls, said Rusty Lowe, executive officer for the Hoover Fire Department.

It’s becoming more common to have many people wounded in situations where it takes time to get professional medical personnel on the scene. Some simple actions to stop bleeding can make a world of difference in saving someone’s life, Bosarge said.

Bosarge, who has military experience, said the U.S. military did studies that found 15 percent of deaths in the field were preventable. Many soldiers were bleeding to death unnecessarily, he said.

The military in 2005 started mandating that all personnel carry tourniquets and hemostatic dressing materials to stop bleeding, Bosarge said. They found that the death rate from extremity bleeding dropped tremendously, he said.

Now, medical personnel want to provide those resources to the general public in hopes that even more lives can be saved by bystanders before professional medical help can arrive.

The American College of Surgeons a couple of years ago formed a committee made up officials from 25 of the nation’s leading medical and public safety organizations to find ways to increase survival rates from mass-casualty events.

They met twice in 2013 and again in April of this year and developed recommendations for action, including equipping law enforcement officers with bleeding control kits and putting them in public places so bystanders can use them, too.

Canady said it’s important for police and school officials to get on board with this effort.

“It’s critical we make sure we’re equipping our folks with the right tools and right materials to deal with that,” Canady said.

Today, he also recognized Spain Park High School in Hoover, which also has put in the bleeding control kits next to AEDs. The Hoover school system plans to add them to all its schools as well, Canady said.

Bosarge said the bleeding control kits help not only in mass shootings or other intentional acts that cause harm, but also in natural disasters and industrial accidents. They also come in handy when dealing with elderly patients who sometimes bleed more easily, he said.

“I believe this is going to help people,” Bosarge said. “This is something that needs to be taken seriously, and it needs to be addressed here in our state … I’m confident the public can do this.”

See more about the effort to make bleeding control kits more accessible in this bulletin by the American College of Surgeons.