For two and a half hours on a Tuesday morning, 40 representatives of shuls, yeshivot and Jewish communal organizations in Middlesex and Monmouth counties got an in-depth visit to one of their worst-case scenarios. They learned from trained experts how to save lives and prevent that scenario from getting worse.
The event was a “Stop the Bleed” training organized by the Jewish Federation in the Heart of New Jersey. The event featured three professional instructors from the Praetorian Agency, each of whom has decades of experience in both law enforcement and training. The Jewish Federation offered the same program in the evening at iPlay America in Freehold.
The morning session started with greetings from Christopher L.C. Kuberiet, the acting county prosecutor for Middlesex County. He thanked everyone present for attending the training and noted that the key factor in preventing bias attacks is promptly reporting any suspicious persons or situations to local or county authorities. He said that “even if you think that something is minor, the details you share can be critical.”
Amy Keller, director of security initiatives at the Jewish Federation, welcomed all attendees and said that the community members overseeing security must move beyond fear to act with appropriate vigilance. She stressed that, in a worst-case scenario, anyone who knows what to do is a first responder, so a session like “Stop the Bleed” can make a major difference.
Ken Martin, Scott Bonito and Ann Marie Hagemann from the Praetorian Agency spoke with the group about the Stop the Bleed program. This program teaches that in a disaster, uncontrolled bleeding from injuries can result in fatalities that can be prevented. They also suggested that the skills learned in the class could be easily transferred to other situations where uncontrolled bleeding may occur, such as car accidents, kitchen slip-ups, falls and bad nose bleeds.
The Stop the Bleed course was developed after the Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012. While it was initially presented to police, fire and EMT personnel, the course developers soon realized that civilians were the true immediate responders who would be on the scene of an attack and could implement all the basic life-saving steps. The course was refocused to train non-EMTs and has since been taught nationwide.
Recognizing that the No. 1 cause of preventable death after injury is external bleeding, Stop the Bleed teaches participants to use different tools and techniques to stop severe bleeding quickly.
The instructors told participants that above all, their own safety must go first—they should only help others when it’s safe to do so. They should also, whenever possible, wear protective gloves or use improvised barriers to blood-borne pathogens whenever assisting someone with uncontrolled bleeding.
They pointed out the three simple steps to begin life saving;
A—Alert 911 first (place call)
B—Locate the Bleeding
C—Compression (pushing down hard on the site of the bleeding)
EMT Ari Lewitter of Highland Park, who was present to assist with the training, stated that compression alone often controls most bleeding from the torso. Compression consists of direct pressure to the wound and should be done with hands crossed, along with gauze or fabric placed underneath the hands to absorb blood and act as another safety measure.
The trainers taught participants how to apply direct pressure and properly pack an open wound with gauze. They also trained those present on how to use either a commercial or improvised tourniquet, two to three inches above the injury, to stop blood circulation of a wound. They stressed that all three methods to stop uncontrolled bleeding—compression, stuffing a wound and applying a tourniquet—will be painful, saying, “This will elicit a pain response in the victim. It will hurt!”
The trainers addressed two common misconceptions with these methods. While the possibility of infection in a wound is a concern, it can be addressed later and the more immediate danger is bleeding out, which can occur in three to five minutes (quicker with a child). People also used to think that use of a tourniquet was bad, because it meant the certain loss of that limb; medical professionals now know that this is only true if the tourniquet is left on for extended periods of time. To address both concerns, part of the recommended Stop the Bleed procedure is to mark, on the tourniquet or on the patient, the time the tourniquet is applied.
The trainers also taught participants the method to safely remove plastic gloves, to prevent exposure to other people’s blood. They explained how “Good Samaritan” laws will protect them from any liability in using the methods they learn. These laws apply to anyone acting voluntarily and in good faith, who performs up to his or her level of training, so long as they don’t exceed their training or act grossly negligent.
After the presentations, participants gathered by tables with artificial limbs and tourniquets, gauze and practice wound holes, plastic gloves and other supplies to practice the skills they’d just learned. The instructors signed off when each participant demonstrated proficiency in each of the six skills they’d learned that day.
At the end of the formal training Amy Keller presented each participant with a ‘Stop the Bleed’ kit, courtesy of the Jewish Federation in the Heart of New Jersey, to be used in their organization’s facility.
Participants spoke highly of the training workshop.
“Although it’s terrifying to think about, this class taught me how to react in a mass casualty event and I feel less scared now that I’m armed with this knowledge. The Federation is helping to save lives by sponsoring classes like this!” said Michelle Pincus, director of operations and admissions at Yeshivat Netivot Montessori in East Brunswick.
“I was very pleased with the quality of the presentation and training,” said David L. Cohen, a member of the security committee at HPCT-CAE. “Good visuals, good speakers with a lot of apparent experience and good hands-on practice. Very happy to get the kit for the temple. Kudos to Federation and Amy Keller for facilitating this.”
“I felt that Stop the Bleed was a very useful program that allowed each participant to bring tangible skills and resources back to their organization. I am grateful to Amy Keller and the Jewish Federation for seeing the value, and pushing for these types of programs that help empower communities,” said Sarah Portilla, program coordinator of the Rutgers Jewish Film Festival at the Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life at Rutgers-New Brunswick.
By Harry Glazer
