LAWRENCE, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — Merrimack Health’s Trauma Team has been teaching people how to "Stop the Bleed."

The Stop the Bleed program was created by the American College of Surgeons to help teach non-medical professionals how to perform life-saving measures when someone is bleeding out. Abbe Wertz, Registered Nurse and Trauma Response Program Manager at Lawrence Hospital, has helped spearhead the local push.

“Since 2018, we have probably taught over 100 classes in the community for all different ages,” said Wertz. “It is very important for the non-medical professional to take steps to stop bleeding before EMS arrives, because it will save your life.”

The group training sessions only take about an hour, but provide people with the skills to apply pressure, pack a wound, and apply a tourniquet in cases where more pressure is needed. While she emphasized the importance of calling 911 to get professionals on scene as quickly as possible, it can be too late to save the patient if no preventative measures were taken before they arrive.

“Bleeding out can happen within three to five minutes. Even in an urban area, it can take 10 minutes for an ambulance to get to you, and if you’re more rural, it can take 30 minutes,” said Wertz. “So if you are addressing this life-threatening bleeding, through pressure, packing, and a tourniquet if you have it, you could actually save this person's life.”

While Wertz would love to see "Stop the Bleed" kits in all public buildings across the country, similar to AEDs, not everyone is able to afford them. However, desperate times call for desperate measures, and there's always something close by that can help apply pressure.

“You can use whatever it is, you can have a sock, a towel, a part of your hoodie, a scarf - something is better than nothing,” said Wertz. “We want to encourage them as much as possible to know that you can address this even if you don’t have the kit.”

More information on how to schedule a "Stop The Bleed" training session can be found on their website here.

WBZ NewsRadio’s Jared Brosnan (@JaredBrosnanWBZ) reports.

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