Stop the Bleed campaign aims to save lives

Wili Alvarez, a trainer with FIU Environmental Health and Safety, demonstrates how to stop bleeding in an emergency.

“If someone is severely bleeding, do you wrap the wound with a dirty or clean rag?” asks Wili Alvarez  of FIU Environmental Health and Safety.

FIU students gathered at the Graham Center for a training session April 13 hesitate and don’t respond.

“It doesn’t matter. We are trying to simply save a life. We will deal with the possible infection and everything else later,” he says.

The training is part of FIU Environmental Health and Safety ‘s “Stop the Bleed” campaign, a White House initiative, to empower anyone, including students, to act during a severe bleeding emergency. Their campaign has a clear message: immediate action saves lives.

“It is truly easy to make such an easy impact. It doesn’t require a lot of training, it doesn’t require a lot of equipment. It just takes a commitment to act,” Alvarez says.

As part of the initiative, bleeding control kits have been added to each and every Automatic External Defibrillator (AEDs) cabinet on campus. AED kits are located throughout the university on the ground floor next to where the main elevators are located.

An interactive map with specific locations and images of AEDs/Defibrillator/bleeding control kits can be found here.

“Unfortunately with tragedies that have been happening all around the country and the world, people are dying for no reason, either though a gunshot wound, a laceration, explosion or a crush injury. Whatever the cause, they didn’t know nor did anyone around them know actually know how to stop severe bleeding. If you don’t stop severe bleeding, specifically, an arterial bleeding, within 10 minutes, you will not live,” said Ruben Almaguer, Vice President of Disaster Management and Emergency Operations.

Public education and training classes will be ongoing at the university. FIU Environmental Health and Safety is partnering with the FIU Police to train staff at all campuses in CPR, AED and severe bleeding control. There are currently more than 1,000 bleeding control kits at the Modesto A. Maidique Campus, at least 10 in each occupied building.

“You can be walking through GC or even in your own neighborhood and something tragic can happen. And if you can help, you should help. It’s something you should know,” said Arianna Calzadilla, a sophomore public relations, marketing and hospitality major.

“It’s a wonderful thing they’re doing. I feel like everyone knows the basics of CPR and the use of an AED, but it helps to have people who have practiced it to step up when they really need it,” said Charles Irwin, a sophomore criminal justice major.

To learn more on how to respond to a medical emergency, check out FIU’s CPR instructional video, and bleeding control video.