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One of two police officers shot while trying to arrest a former state corrections officer yesterday in Baltimore was saved by the use of a tourniquet, said Dr. Thomas Scalea, Physician-in Chief at R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center of the University of Maryland.
The officer, who was shot in the leg, had the tourniquet applied by a fellow officer, according to Dr. Scalea.
Tourniquets are strap-like constricting devices which, when applied to an extremity reduce blood flow and consequent blood loss in the setting of penetrating trauma (gunshot or stabbing).
The use of medical grade tourniquets, when applied correctly to a limb, are also an integral part of a campaign known as “Stop the Bleed”. The goal of the campaign, developed by the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma in 2012 after the Sandy Hook tragedy, is to teach bleeding control techniques to those in the community, including application of tourniquets.
In a press conference reported by WBAL-TV in Baltimore yesterday, Scalea highlighted what happened to the police officer to emphasize the importance of learning and mastering such skills to save lives before arrival of medical personnel on scene and transport to the hospital.
Many doctors believe that learning to properly apply a tourniquet is equally as important as learning to perform CPR, since it’s possible to bleed to death in under 5 minutes.
" Tourniquets save lives,” said Scalea in the press conference. “There is a course and we are happy to teach you, and I will not rest until every citizen of Baltimore and Maryland has taken this course. It’s called Stop the Bleed, because next time maybe it’s your family and you too will be able to help save their life.”
Joseph Sakran, M.D, FACS, Director of Emergency General Surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and a survivor of gun violence at the age of 17 when he was shot in the neck, offered his perspective to help clarify confusion that has arisen about the role of Stop The Bleed in providing lifesaving treatment for victims of gun violence.
“The perception at times is that Stop the Bleed is meant to be used as a solution for Gun Violence Prevention, and that is simply not case,” explained Sakran.
“Stop the Bleed is utilized as a life-saving skill in the scenario where someone is injured and bleeding to death: it could be your child who fell at the neighborhood park or passenger involved in a motor vehicle crash—similar to how we have invested in teaching citizens CPR,” he offered.
In a recent editorial published in the Annals of Surgery,“ The Impact of Bleeding Control—A Perspective Beyond Firearm Injury,” Sakran emphasizes the sanctity of life itself, that human beings who are victims of gun violence have a face well beyond the statistics that we must never forget.
He writes, “...although the proportion of injuries that may have benefited from a tourniquet is small,...I would submit to you the moral question of what value we place on the life of a person. These are human beings not just statistics.”
While Sakran also touches upon the psychological impact and long term mental health effects experienced by survivors of gun violence, along with the fear of active shooter training by children and adolescents, he offers that “.. whether or not added psychological stress is exhibited by being trained in bleeding control is undetermined at this point.”
His conclusion is sound: “As clinicians, we are front and center of caring for firearm-related injuries on a daily basis. Although hemorrhage-control training programs will not provide a preventive solution to this public health crisis we face in America, it may prove to be useful, as we have seen in prior scenarios like the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting. We have both the opportunity and responsibility to think beyond the four walls of our trauma center or operating room to work on injury prevention strategies that can make communities safer.”