The week of May 12 was not only National Police Week, but also National Hospital Week.
Luke Anderson, emergency preparedness manager for Northeast Georgia Health System
and regional coordinating hospital Region B Healthcare Coalition coordinator, marked the
occasion with a presentation to the Habersham County Sheriff’s Office.
Standing with representatives of Northeast Georgia Medical Center Habersham outside
the hospital’s emergency department in Demorest, Anderson presented 45 Stop the
Bleed kits to the sheriff’s office from the Coalition in partnership with NGHS.
“It’s a partnership that we want to establish within our 10-county region to make sure
that patients have the best opportunity getting treatment, stopping the bleed early on to
allow our amazing first responders, law enforcement, fire/EMS to be able to stabilize a
patient and get them quickly to our hospital facilities that ultimately will improve their
patient outcome,” Anderson said.
Habersham County Sheriff Robin Krockum said he is thankful for the potentially
lifesaving donation.
“We appreciate the partnership and are very grateful for their donation to our deputies
in the field,” Krockum said. “Having these kits gives us the ability to stabilize a patient
until they can be treated further by medical personnel.”
Stop the Bleed kits include basic supplies needed if an officer or other responder comes
upon a patient who is rapidly losing blood. Gloves included protect the responder, but
the kit also includes scissors for cutting away clothing to expose the area of injury,
material for packing the wound to stop the bleeding as soon as possible, and a
tourniquet, along with a marker for the responder to mark the time the tourniquet was
applied.
Stop the Bleed kits have already been presented to the Hall County Sheriff’s Office and the Gainesville and Oakwood Police Departments.
In addition, Stop the Bleed training is available at high schools throughout northeast Georgia via an educational program using a Mobile Simulation Lab sponsored and funded by NGHS. Those schools include Apalachee, Barrow Arts and Science, Empower, North Hall, East Hall, West Hall, Johnson, Cherokee Bluff, Chestatee, Flowery Branch, Lumpkin County, Stephens County, and Rabun County – as well as high schools in the cities of Commerce, Jefferson, Gainesville and Buford.