This fall, Johnson County schools will be more prepared to save the lives of students who might be seriously injured if a violent attack happens.
In a mass casualty event such as a school shooting, bleeding is the most common preventable cause of death, which can happen within 90 seconds of an injury, said Jeremy Pell, White River Township Fire Chief.
The Johnson County Health Department will provide each Johnson County school with four “Stop the Bleed” kits, which contain tourniquets, bandages and gauze to help keep students alive while school staff wait for professional medical help.
The state made a push for increased access to emergency medical care in schools after a shooter at Noblesville West Middle School injured a teacher and a student. Along with the kits, the Johnson County Health Department will provide each school district with training on how to use them. The goal is to get the kits in the schools before school starts, said Betsy Swearingen, director of the Johnson County Health Department.
With the kits and proper training, anyone can assist a severely injured person, who might otherwise die before first responders, such as emergency medical technicians, can help them. With a $120,000 grant from the Indiana Department of Health distributed in May, each county health department in Marion and the surrounding counties, gets enough kits to supply four to each public, private and charter school. Each health department also has 32 kits that they can distribute to government buildings, community centers, libraries and other public spaces, Swearingen said.
The Johnson County Health Department is sending four of the 32 extra kits to Walnut Grove Elementary School, which will open in August, Swearingen said.
Training involves a lecture on bleeding control and how it impacts the body and proper treatment. Staff who are getting trained will have the opportunity to practice putting tourniquets on fake limbs with fake blood, as well as demonstrate the skills they’ve learned on mannequins. The biggest keys are to get the wound elevated above the heart and to apply pressure to it, Pell said.
With the proper training and equipment, people can take a more active role in an emergency, instead of waiting for first responders to get there to help, Sanderson said.
"We know that minutes can make the difference in saving a life, and bystanders are often first on the scene in an emergency," Sanderson said in an email. "A person who is bleeding can die from blood loss within five minutes. We want to have these tools on site so bystanders can provide first care and save more lives before professional help arrives."
The Indiana State Department of Health agreed to grant an additional $120,000 to central Indiana health departments this month. Swearingen wants to add four more kits to each school with Johnson County’s $8,232 share, but is waiting for word from the state health department on when exactly the extra funding will come in, she said.
Each kit costs $42 and Johnson County now has 196 of them, said Greta Sanderson, spokesperson for the Indiana State Department of Health,
The kits include an instructional booklet on bleeding control, a tourniquet, which people can apply on a victim’s wound, compression gauze, which helps blood clot faster, a pair of rubber gloves, compression bandages and scissors so people can cut clothing from around the wound, said Pell, who has conducted Stop the Bleed training before.
“What we’re finding is uncontrolled bleeding is the number one cause of preventable death from trauma. We’re finding in these active shooter incidents we need to get in quickly and control the bleeding and then start providing more preventative care,” Pell said.
“It doesn’t just have be an active shooter, it can be vehicle accidents. That’s very common. There have been countless people saved using tourniquets and direct pressure control. It’s a skill-set we need to learn as a community.”
The Indiana State Department of Health has awarded the Johnson County Health Department a preventative health and health services block grant for about 15 years, but this is the first time the grant is being used to help schools, Swearingen said.
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Stop the Bleed kits include:
- Tourniquet
- Compression gauze
- Rubber gloves
- Compression bandages
- Scissors
Source: Greta Sanderson, Indiana State Department of Health
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The $120,000 grant for "Stop the Bleed" kits come from the Indiana State Department of Health’s preventative health and health services block grant and funds four kits for 575 public, private and charter schools in Marion and the surrounding counties.
- Johnson County’s share of grant is $8,232
- Each kit costs $42
- Johnson County has 196 kits, 168 for schools
- Each county gets four kits for each public, private and charter school, and additional kits to distribute at the local health department’s discretion.
Source: Greta Sanderson, Indiana State Department of Health
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