March 26, 2018
In recognition of National Stop the Bleed Day on March 31, Priority Ambulance, in conjunction with Fort Loudoun Medical Center, will donate a bleeding control kit to every school in Loudon County and provide free training for students, schoolteachers and the public, as part of the lifesaving Stop the Bleed initiative.
“Everyone should know what to do in a medical emergency,” Priority Ambulance Director Dennis Rowe said. “Just like CPR and other critical first aid skills, knowing when and how to control bleeding can be the difference between life and death. Uncontrolled bleeding injuries can result from natural and manmade disasters and from everyday accidents. ”
Research has shown that bystanders with little or no medical training can save a life by knowing basic bleeding control skills to stabilize a patient while emergency responders arrive.
Priority Ambulance and Fort Loudoun Medical Center instructors will hold free Stop the Bleed training classes for the public on Saturday, March 31, at The Venue in Lenoir City, located at 7690 Creekwood Park Blvd. The 30-minute classes will meet every half hour from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Walks-in are welcome, and registration is not required.
Instructors will demonstrate basic techniques and use of household items to control bleeding, according to Rowe, who also is president of the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians (NAEMT) and a board member for the National Trauma Institute. NAEMT played a key role in developing the Stop the Bleed course to teach bleed control measures to law enforcement, firefighters, security personnel, teachers and bystanders at emergencies.
“We partnered with Priority Ambulance on this initiative because we share a commitment to a safe and well-prepared community,” said Jeffrey Feike, president and chief administrative officer at Fort Loudoun Medical Center. “Intervention by bystanders is critical in bleeding control situations, just as it is in cardiac events or stroke, to improve outcomes when patients arrive in our emergency department.”
Additionally, Priority Ambulance and Fort Loudoun Medical Center will be donating at least two bleeding control kits to each elementary, middle and high school in Loudon County. Priority Ambulance will conduct “Stop the Bleed” classes for teacher emergency response teams and students in emergency medical services vocational classes at Lenoir City High School, Loudon High School and Greenback High School the week leading up to the National Stop the Bleed Day.
“We’re members of this community, and it’s our children that attend these schools,” Priority Ambulance EMS Director Travis Estes. “We are personally committed to making sure that our teachers and students are prepared for any type of emergency. The bleeding control training will be added to our already extensive lifesaving medical training program in the schools.”
Priority Ambulance, which already provides free biannual training for all Loudon County teachers in CPR and first aid, will add bleeding control to the curriculum. The kits are officially sanctioned by the Stop the Bleed initiative of the American College of Surgeons and will be located in the AED boxes at each school, which are already maintained by Priority Ambulance and marked with clear signage.
Additional information about Stop the Bleed in Loudon County can be found at www.priorityambulance.com. For information on purchasing personal bleeding control kits and events across the country, visit https://cms.bleedingcontrol.org/class/search.
Stop the Bleed, an initiative by the American College of Surgeons, is a national grassroots effort to educate the public in bleeding control protocols.
About Priority Ambulance
Based in Knoxville, Tenn., Priority Ambulance provides the highest level of clinical excellence in emergency and nonemergency medical care to the communities it serves. Throughout its national service area, approximately 2,500 highly trained paramedics and EMTs staff a fleet of approximately 400 state-of-the-art vehicles with the latest medical equipment and technology.
Priority Ambulance’s family of companies operates under trusted local brands providing medical transport options in nine states. The Priority Ambulance company partners include Shoals Ambulance in Alabama; Maricopa Ambulance in Arizona; Puckett EMS in Georgia and Southeast Tennessee; Central EMS in Georgia; Seals Ambulance in Indiana; Kunkel Ambulance in Upstate New York; Trans Am Ambulance in western New York and Northwestern Pennsylvania; Medshore Ambulance in South Carolina; and Priority Ambulance in East Tennessee. Priority Ambulance also serves Baptist Memorial Health Care facilities in West Tennessee and Mississippi under the Baptist brand.
About Fort Loudoun Medical Center
Fort Loudoun Medical Center is equipped with a team of more than 200 doctors in more than 29 specialty areas. Our 87,000-square-foot hospital features advanced technology, including state-of-the-art Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Computerized Tomography (CT), Ultrasound, Diagnostic X-Rays and Women’s Imaging Services, as well as Nuclear Medicine technology unique to our surrounding counties. The physicians, staff and volunteers of Fort Loudoun Medical Center are dedicated to providing excellent care to every patient, every time.
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