‘Stop the Bleed’ training session in Lexington focuses on saving gunshot victims

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - The city’s latest homicides have put a spotlight on efforts to save lives.

A workshop Wednesday night was aimed at teaching people basic first aid for victims of gunshots and stabbings. For one mother, the training takes on a whole new meaning.

It only takes three to five minutes for a person to bleed out. And it only took half an hour for women at the workshop to learn to prevent that.

“We focus on keeping more blood inside the body than outside, that’s going to give the individual a fighting chance until help arrives,” said Baillie McCane, the trauma outreach injury prevention coordinator at UK.

McCane leads a Stop the Bleed training session with UK’s Trauma Center.

Demonstrating with food coloring and training dummies, McCane showed the different variations of wounds, cuts and impalements someone could have. Then she tells the group it all starts with the ABC’s.

“Teaches you how to control your mind and control your actions,” McCane said.

If someone is hurt, from a gunshot, a fall, any type of accident, you should first alert 911. Then while help is on the way find the bleeding, then compression. You can first try to put pressure on the wound using your hands. If bleeding doesn’t stop, you start to pack the wound using gauze, but use a t-shirt, blanket, towel, or whatever is available.

“They’re afraid they don’t pack enough, or pack too much, it’s all about getting material in,” McCane said.

Then if that doesn’t work, wrap a tourniquet, a tight band, two to three inches above the wound.

It’s a simple training with a big impact, one that the president of Sister and Supporters Working Against Gun Violence, Tonya Lindsey, believes everyone should know.

“Back in 2013, my 16-year-old son was shot and killed in the Woodhill Corridor,” Lindsey said.

For the past decade, Lindsey’s been providing resources like this, for families like hers.

“You just never know where you may be and you may have to save someone’s life,” Lindsey said.

Lindsey said they’re planning another course in a few weeks.

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