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Dale Herd, a physician assistant at Northern Montana Hospital, demonstrates to people how to properly tie a tourniquet on someone's arm Tuesday evening. This was done as part of a class called Stop the Bleed which aims to educate people about how to stop bleeding after an injury.
Julia Hart, 7, learns how to use pressure to stop bleeding Tuesday at a Stop the Bleed class at Northern Montana Hospital put on by Dale Herd.
A certified trainer is holding a marathon session of classes Saturday to help people learn how to stop the No. 1 cause of death in a traumatic injury - bleeding.
Dale Herd, physician assistant at Northern Montana Health Care's orthopedic department, will celebrate the first-ever national Stop the Bleed Day Saturday by holding classes all day long - at 9, 10 and 11 a.m. and 1, 2 and 3 p.m.
The classes teach people with no medical background how to control bleeding, Herd said.
The program, which is about a year-and-a-half old, was designed specifically to help with mass events and came out of the response to the Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012 and the Boston Marathon bombing a year later.
The program was intended to teach people how to respond to injuries in areas with mass casualties, such as at a bus depot or train station, but it applies to remote, rural areas.
"This is perfect for the Hi-Line," he said. "This is perfect for a lot of places, but this was designed for the Hi-Line."
The classes do show some graphic photos of bleeding, but anyone is welcome to attend if they can handle seeing those images, including children.
"It's part of the class," Herd said. "If they are mature and their mother and father or whoever they are with are OK with it, we will let them in."
He said the intent of the class is to teach people how to stop bleeding until emergency service providers can arrive.
People with traumatic injuries can die from bleeding in five minutes, so stopping the bleeding is crucial, he said.
In areas of mass trauma - like a bombing or mass shooting - emergency service providers may be delayed getting to people even for hours, he said, so stopping the bleeding until they arrive can be the only way to save someone's life.
"It may be hours before EMTs can get there," Herd said.
In rural Montana, where medical service could be hours away, the same is true, he said.
The first target for Stop the Bleed was law enforcement, which often arrives at a scene before medical providers, Herd said. The creators of the program decided they needed to expand it.
"They got together and decided they needed to do something for American citizens," he said.
He said in addition to training people how to stop bleeding, a top priority is training people how to hold the classes and train others.
Northern Montana Health Care Foundation bought five kits used to hold the classes, and Herd said he is more than happy to help people become certified to teach the classes and borrow the kits to put on classes. He said he hopes the kits start going out to classes very often.
"That would be the best situation, if they wore them out," he said.
He said he started holding the classes in January, and so far, has taught 24 classes with a total of 141 people attending.
He held two classes Tuesday, with 24 people attending, he said.
People can find out more about the program and when classes are available by logging into https://www.bleedingcontrol.org and clicking on the top menu bar item "Find a Class" and entering their zip code.
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