ACCPD receives donated trauma first-aid kits

Front row (left to right): Lt. Al Radford, ACCPD; Phillip Carpenter, Piedmont Athens Regional Medical Center; C.J. Worden, Oconee County Emergency Management Agency. Back row (left to right): Capt. Christopher Nichols, ACCPD; Elisabeth Wilson, Georgia Department of Health

Region E Healthcare Coalition recently donated 200 "Stop the Bleed" kits to the Athens Clarke County Police Department.

The kits provide police officers and other first responders immediate access to medical supplies intended to stop traumatic hemorrhaging. They will be distributed to ACCPD precincts.

No matter how fast EMS responds, a person suffering from severe trauma can bleed to death in as little as three to five minutes. Research has shown that as many as 20 percent of traumatic injury deaths by hemorrhage could have been prevented with emergency measures to control bleeding. Rapid access to bleeding control products, such as tourniquets, wound-packing gauze and pressure dressing, reduces time to treatment and saves lives in incidents of severe hemorrhage.

The donated kits have a total value of $8,000.

The Region E Healthcare Coalition coordinates regional planning efforts among a 12-county region that includes Barrow, Athens-Clarke, Elbert, Franklin, Greene, Jackson, Hart, Madison, Morgan, Oconee, Oglethorpe, and Walton counties.