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 The findings come amid a push by doctors and emergency responders to
eliminate deaths in mass shootings and disasters that might be
avoided with proper bleeding control at the scene. A national
protocol known as the Hartford Consensus calls for strangers and
bystanders to step in and assist the wounded before emergency
medical service (EMS) workers arrive.
"The most critical issue in major bleeding from any source is time,"
said lead study author Dr. Lenworth Jacobs, a surgery researcher at
the University of Connecticut and chairman of the Hartford
Consensus.
"It is essential that the average person understands the concept of
using their hands to apply pressure to the bleeding site, which will
stop the bleeding," Jacobs said by email.
To assess how willing and able ordinary people might be to help a
bleeding patient in an emergency, Jacobs and colleagues surveyed
1,051 people by phone in English and Spanish.
Overall, 47 percent of respondents said they had ever taken first
aid training. About half of these said their training had happened
more than five years ago. Only 13 percent of respondents said their
training took place within the past two years.
Among 941 individuals who said they were able to give first aid, 98
percent said they would be at least somewhat likely to try to stop
bleeding for a family member with a severe leg wound. Most would use
compression or pressure, while about a third would apply a
tourniquet.
About half of those who could give first aid were randomly asked
what they would do after a car crash; 92 percent said they'd be at
least somewhat likely to try to stop bleeding for an injured
stranger.
Regarding a mass shooting, 75 percent of people randomly selected to
consider this scenario said they would try to give first aid if it
seemed safe to do so, according to a report in the Journal of the
American College of Surgeons.
It’s possible, the authors admit, that respondents expressed more
willingness to help then they would in a real-life emergency.
Even so, the findings highlight the willingness of ordinary citizens
to intervene when strangers are severely injured, as well as the
need for more widespread first aid training that includes lessons on
bleeding control, said Dr. Peter Pons, an emergency medicine
physician and a researcher at the University of Colorado School of
Medicine.
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"While it is a sad reality of our time that incidents such as the
Tucson shooting, the Planned Parenthood shooting in Colorado
Springs, the Boston Marathon bombings, the attacks in Paris and
Belgium, and numerous others occur resulting in large numbers of
casualties, injury also occurs intentionally in the home, in the
workplace and during leisure activities," Pons said by email.
"For all of these reasons, it is essential that hemorrhage control
join CPR as an appropriate component of every citizen's knowledge
base," added Pons, who wasn't involved in the study.
Even without formal training, just about anyone can help in an
emergency, said Jonathan Epstein, senior director of science and
content development for the American Red Cross.
"Anyone can help to stop severe bleeding with little to no formal
training by using their hands and applying direct pressure over the
wound while waiting for EMS to arrive with no significant
complications," Epstein, who wasn't involved in the study, said by
email.
"When a person is bleeding severely it is more important to have
someone willing to act than being worried about causing harm by
putting pressure on the wound," Epstein added. "A person who may not
have the confidence to help in an emergency and thus be unwilling to
help is far worse than someone willing to step in and do something
in a lifesaving situation."
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1rgeBcU Journal of the American College of
Surgeons, online March 31, 2016.
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