If you have a deep leg wound, you can bleed out within 10 to 15 seconds.”

Nathan Mathias, high school sophomore who organized the "Stop the Bleed" training session

PORTSMOUTH — You’re in your home and a family member suddenly slips in the shower, sending her crashing through the glass door. There’s blood everywhere and a deep gash on her leg.

You call 911, but the blood is spurting out fast. What do you do?

If you don’t know the answer, perhaps you need to attend a “Stop the Bleed” training session, such as the one last week at the CFP Arts, Wellness, and Community Center in Common Fence Point. The event was attended by about 30 citizens who were trained on critical bleeding control techniques, including direct-pressure application, wound-packing, and proper tourniquet use.  

The session was organized by Nathan Mathias, a Little Compton resident and a 10th-grade student at the East Bay Met in Newport. Nathan has been interning with Ray Perry, the director of the Portsmouth Emergency Management Agency, since November. 

“When I first started with him, we had a conference with MRC (The R.I. Medical Reserve Corps) and they started talking about how they wanted to do this whole project, Stop the Bleed, in 2025, and they wanted to get to all 39 municipalities,” he said. “I decided to team up with them and get this training done for Portsmouth and hopefully expand it on to other towns.”

When he was in ninth grade, Nathan interned with the Little Compton Fire Department for eight months. “I loved it. I ran the medical calls, fire calls — all sorts of things. Last month I just got into the Tiverton Fire Department, and I’m doing the same thing with them. I’m hoping to do another training like this for the Town of Tiverton,” he said.

The whole idea behind “Stop the Bleed” is to teach citizens how to stabilize a patient until first responders arrive. “In the training, we’re doing tourniquets and how to apply them. And then we’re also doing gauze-packing — taking gauze and physically packing it in a bullet hole,” Nathan said.

Those precious minutes of care are critical particularly in small towns that have limited rescue crews, he said. In Little Compton, for example, two rescue workers could already be out on a call when another emergency situation arises, he said.

“You’re going to have to wait for mutual aid from either Tiverton or Westport, and that could take 10, 15 minutes. If you have a deep leg wound, you can bleed out within 10 to 15 seconds. Most of your main arteries are in your leg,” Nathan said.

Stop the bleed

Perry praised the nonprofit all-volunteer RIMRC staff, whose goal is to certify 2,000 Rhode Islanders in “Stop the Bleed” training  this year. “They’re one of our special teams that we use and call on when needed,” he said.

Using replicas of human body limbs punctured with openings that resembled bullet holes and cuts, Robert Holland of RIMRC’s Training, Innovation & Leadership Group led one session on wound-packing — getting the bleeding under control by “plugging the hole” with gauze and applying pressure.

Robert Holland of the R.I. Medical Reserve Corps’ Training, Innovation & Leadership Group leads a presentation on how to pack a patient’s wound with gauze until first-responders arrive.

Jim McGaw

Someone asked about the pain the patient is experiencing during treatment: Do you stop to give them relief?

“If I had been shot and I had a big chunk of my leg off, don’t you think that already hurts? You say, ‘You want to live? Let me help you,’” he responded.

More kits needed

Near the end of the session, Holland made a pitch for getting more Stop the Bleed kits — the include items such as tourniquets (including the rubber C-A-T tourniquet which can be effective in certain situations), gauze, trauma shears, gloves, and an instructional booklet — in the hands of municipalities. 

“If you’re down at the Glen, or at the beach, or at the high school walking on the track — those are all public settings, and people can get hurt in those settings. Wouldn’t it be nice if we had one of those there?” he said. “I think it’s time as citizens for us to go to our elected officials and say, ‘Hey, it’s not if somebody’s going to bleed to death, it’s when. What are we doing to be prepared?’” 

If the local PTO wants to buy something, Holland said, “Tell them get a couple of Stop the Bleed kits for our schools.”

Rescue workers can’t save someone if they don’t respond quickly enough, he said.

“Don’t be a bystander — be a by-doer,” Holland said. “You know you’re the only help until help arrives. You’re on your own until the rescue gets there,” he said.

For more information about the Stop the Bleed training or to book a class, e-mail info@stopthebleedri.org, call 401/385-3911, or visit www.rimrc.org/operation-stop-the-bleed-ri.