“Stop the Bleed” helps teach public how to react to medical trauma incident before professional medical care can arrive

Area public safety officials have gotten together to teach employees of the city and county of Fond du Lac how to react and help an injured person with a significant bleeding injury.

The Stop the Bleed program encourages bystanders to become trained, equipped, and empowered to help in a bleeding emergency before professional help arrives. It recognizes that bystanders can act as an “immediate responder” to help an injured person’s only chance for survival – whether that person is a family member, friend, or stranger. Skills taught during this training experience prepare participants to act in any emergency, large scale or small, that involves gunshot wounds or other traumatic injury where a victim sustains a life-threatening bleeding emergency.

The initiative began with the Fond du Lac County Facilities Safety Committee to address topics regarding employee safety. One of these facilities is the City-County Government Center, which is staffed by employees of both the City and the County of Fond du Lac. Therefore, the conversation grew to extend this training on a voluntary basis to city and county employees.

The training and instructor cadre is a joint venture between the Fond du Lac Police Department, Fond du Lac County Sheriff’s Office, Fond du Lac Fire/Rescue, and SSM Health. The training class has been done with 4 of 5 scheduled groups so far, including for employees of the Fond du Lac County Highway Department. It is anticipated that more classes will be added as needed.

The training not only can serve the employee at work, but also at home and during other activities in their daily lives. The partnership between the agencies providing the instructors demonstrates a tremendous commitment to making our communities safer.