FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – May is national Stop the Bleed month. Did you know uncontrolled bleeding is the number one cause of preventable death from traumatic injuries?

Medical experts say a person who is bleeding can die from blood loss within just five minutes.

To raise awareness the Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno will hold a free ‘Stop the Bleed’ training program for the public each month. Where participants will learn how to stop blood loss quickly.

The goal is to encourage members of the community to get trained and empower them to offer help in the event of a bleeding emergency.

“We have car crashes that happen every day. We have people on motorcycles and some of them get thrown off and some of them lose an arm or a leg. We have all kinds of agricultural work and there are big machines and people get badly injured. It could happen anywhere; it could happen at any time. The more people that know, the more people can potentially be saved,” said Dr. Jim Davis, Chief of Trauma & Chief of the Dept. of Surgery, UCSF Fresno, CRMC

Health experts say there are three steps to stop the bleeding:

  1. Apply pressure with hands
  2. Apply dressing and press
  3. Apply the tourniquet following the wrap, wind, secure, and time rules.

To learn more about attending a Stop the Bleeding training program call (559) 459-5133 or send an email to StoptheBleed@communitymedical.org.