In having a conversation with some other members about available safety equipment yesterday, I learned that we do not have a Stop the Bleed kit or offer Stop the Bleed training.
Stop the Bleed is a nationwide campaign by the American College of Surgeons to prepare every American to prevent the number one cause of death after injury: bleeding. A person can bleed out in less than 5 minutes, often before EMS can arrive. Having laypeople around who can act is often the difference between life and death.
Given the size of our membership and the risks associated with the activities that we often do and tools we often use (ranging from nearly any imaginable spinning sharp object to flying fragments of wood/glass/metal/stone/etc. to operating heavy equipment to freak accidents), I think it would be an excellent idea for us to offer Stop the Bleed training regularly and install a Stop the Bleed kit under the AED in the kitchen.
Even aside from the risks we face at DMS, lives have been saved by a Stop the Bleed trained passerby in a motor vehicle collision, random act of violence on the street, household accident, etc.
If people are interested, I would be happy to reach out to the Stop the Bleed trainers at UT Southwestern and see if we could set up training.
We have (used to have?) trauma bags
in various places throughout the shop, but specifically not in the galley so as to have them closer to the point of need
e.g.
which also coincides with the other 1st aid and fire extinguisher locations.
I don’t know if these decisions have been revisited since expansion opened up, though, so a new convo about this is probably in order and likely to lead to some action, even if that’s just to double check for/replace out of date stuff in the existing kits…
Adding: link to another time this sort of thing was Talked about Trauma Kit at DMS? - just want to know not in immediate need - #11 by Robert_Davidson
I glanced at that bag yesterday but wasn’t sure what all was in it - it looked like mostly bandaids and one package of hemostatic gauze, I’ll check more thoroughly today when I’m there.
They are (used to be?) sealed, so I’d suggest coordinating that with infra/board so out of date stuffs can be replaced and the bags resealed in the process.
They’re definitely not sealed - I’d say jumbled and partially overflowing is a more accurate descriptor. If I had to guess, the big Cintas box on top didn’t have the antibiotic ointment or bandaid that someone needed so it got rummaged through at some point
Boo! And, indeed, hiss.
Sounds like they need attention, then.
Sure would be nice if members would let folks know when this kind of thing happens so our facilities could stay safe & friendly. Eternal optimist, I am.
At one point, the Cintas guy pointed out that we did (at the time) have the Stop The Bleed packs in the First Aid cabinets. He was replacing them at the time, and thought that we didn’t know what we had.
Double check, as I’m not exactly sure. And – we’ve had a couple of accidents in the near past.
It’s possible that we used it at some point, and the Cintas guys didn’t realize that they should refill. I haven’t looked at the First Aid cabinet mounted to the pillar. We were only in the other half the day that the Cintas guy found me and explained it to me. He was concerned that it was nearly expired, and hadn’t been used. Might be worth a 5-10 minute speech in Woodshop Basics, so newbies would know where it was. If we don’t have any at this time (and it sounds like the trauma bag is out), then we need to ask Cintas to supply one. It’s possible that all the changing of personnel over the last couple of years has gotten that item off of our list somehow.
@Team_Logistics – who communicates with Cintas? We used to get the packet that would stop bleeding, at least pre-pandemic. I know we’ve had a couple of folks get cut pretty badly in, oh, the last year or two. Maybe we used it and they didn’t replace? Of course, could be the usual litany nowadays – supply chain, shortages, etc., etc…
Is the Cintas item the same/best solution? This is a serious as it can get. We have several licensed medical providers as members. It might be smart to loop them into this instead of placing the burden on well meaning layman members and a Cintas sales rep. We never want to hear the phrase, if you only had of …
The “trauma kit” next to woodshop is, AFAIK, the only one (and I’m the person who inventoried the safety equipment long, long ago for the “map”). This was probably appropriate pre-expansion because all the dangerous tools were located in one place. IMO we should probably add another one on the north side, in the section formerly known as Suite 102.
As far as I know, the Cintas bag only has hemostatic gauze. Hemostatic gauze is great until it isn’t. It’s much better than nothing but not nearly sufficient for really serious bleeds - you can lose >40% of your blood in 3-4 minutes from an arterial bleed. Your hemostatic gauze just isn’t capable of controlling that kind of situation.
At a bare minimum, I feel strongly that there should also be a tourniquet in there and everyone in the maker space should have the opportunity to learn how to use both. The woodshop is far from the only place where dangerous tools exist and I think we can all think of examples of times when people who haven’t taken woodshop basics are using dangerous tools outside the woodshop or in the vicinity of someone who is.
I’m of the opinion that this should be like CPR training - basic common knowledge with equipment readily available in an easily identified location with clear steps printed on it (like the AED).
UT Southwestern has a robust Stop the Bleed training program where they send trainers out to community organizations, companies, etc. I’d be more than happy to reach out to get details and/or make introductions
So far I’ve only looked at the FA kit in the galley, but it had 2 different tourniquets. So this is clearly a supply issue if there aren’t any in the back FA kits.
And the advantage to us using Cintas is that they come by monthly and restock, without us having to know exactly what we need. Clearly this has gotten off track during the pandemic, but we should be able to get it back on track.
