East Meadow School District is at forefront of ‘Stop the Bleed’

The East Meadow School District is planning to train its entire staff in treating life-threatening wounds through a program called Stop the Bleed.

Launched by the federal Department of Homeland Security in October 2015, the program was started in response to the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Conn., that left 26 people dead — many of whom died of blood loss, according to reports.

It takes only five minutes for someone with a life-threatening injury to bleed to death, according to professionals at Nassau University Medical Center. The Stop the Bleed program teaches bystanders how to suppress blood loss and keep a victim alive until he or she receives medical attention.

On Dec. 12, representatives of the Nassau County Police Department, Nassau University Medical Center and South Nassau Communities Hospital demonstrated life-saving techniques to personnel at W.T. Clarke Middle School in Salisbury. They have already visited most of the district’s nine buildings, and expect to stop at all of them by mid-January.

In East Meadow, the Parent Teacher Association Council advocated bringing the program to its staff. PTA Council President Robin Fitzpatrick, an East Meadow Fire Department emergency medical technician, said that the program arms teachers with the skills to save lives.

“You could use what you learn in any circumstance if faced with it,” said Fitzpatrick, who hopes to supply every school with a bleed-control kit that in-cludes gauze and a tourniquet.

The program was brought into schools three years ago, but some parents and students were introduced to it at a school safety forum hosted by the NCPD at Hofstra University on Sept. 24.

Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder noted that the content was graphic. “You need to understand that this is reality,” he said. “It’s no longer if it happens; it’s when it happens. And when it happens, we’re prepared.”

This is the first year that Nassau County schools are seeing the program, said Allison Anderson, a nurse at SNCH. “Schools were a little reluctant to bring us in at first,” she said. “But this year we’ve been all over.”

So far, SNCH representatives have taught the program to 1,800 staff members in the county. NUMC representatives have worked with 1,000 people, including staff members they co-taught with SNCH.

On Jan. 28 at 7 p.m., the PTA Council will join law enforcement officials and medical professionals to host a districtwide Stop the Bleed program for parents and student older than 15.