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Ohio County EMA Equips Police with Stop the Bleed Kits

The Wayne County commissioners authorized the Emergency Management Agency to apply for a grant from the George T. Dunlap Foundation in the amount of $20,859, enough for 130 kits.

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(TNS) — Police officers across Wayne County soon will be equipped to provide a quick response to major bleed events if they arrive first on the scene.

The Wayne County Emergency Management Agency is securing funds to supply a Stop The Bleed Kit for each vehicle at every law enforcement agency in the county. The Wayne County commissioners authorized the EMA to apply for a grant from the George T. Dunlap Foundation in the amount of $20,859, enough for 130 kits.

Each kit includes tourniquets, disposable gloves and quick clot wound packing material.

The EMA previously applied for a $3,800 grant through Walmart for the same reason, but the agency has not heard back on the grant application. Director Joe Villegas hopes this grant and the Walmart grant will allow the county to purchase enough kits to place in every vehicle.

"Currently, we have to use makeshift dressings and direct compression while we wait for the EMS personnel to arrive," Rittman Police Chief Ray Arcuri said. "With the proper training, our officers will be able to render vital first aid to citizens, other officers and themselves."

Stop the Bleed is intended to cultivate grassroots efforts that encourage bystanders to become trained, equipped and empowered to help in a bleeding emergency before professional help arrives, according to BleedingControl.org.

The national awareness campaign was launched in October 2015, two years after the Joint Committee to Create a National Policy to Enhance Survivability from Intentional Mass Casualty and Active Shooter Events was formed in Hartford, Connecticut in response to the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

Dalton Police Chief Ryan Pearson was skeptical of the Stop the Bleed concept until he watched a video of two officers in a shootout, one of whom was able to apply a tourniquet to his partner who was shot in the leg. Some of his officers already have tourniquets on their belts and First Aid bags equipped with more emergency type items.

"And it's not just putting new equipment in place but also training for a bad situation," Pearson said.

Officers on the Wooster Police Department have carried tactical medical kits with the same materials as the Stop the Bleed Kits since 2013. The department also receives training from Eleven-Ten, the makers of the tourniquets, on how to properly utilize the equipment, pack major wounds, and tend to someone who has a traumatic injury.

"Each cruiser is equipped with a fully stocked medical kit to be used for everything from gunshot wounds to putting a Band-Aid on a child's knee," said Scott Rotolo, assistant chief for the Wooster Police Department.

Contributions through the Wooster Citizens Police Academy Alumni Association and the Ohio Tactical Officers Association have allowed the department to issue a tourniquet for each officer that he or she can carry on their duty belt or vest for each shift worked.

Sgt. Clint Bartolic earned the department's life-saving award in April 2018 for using his tourniquet on a woman who had cut her wrist. "The woman likely would have succumbed to her wounds" if not for Bartolic's actions, Wooster Police Chief Matt Fisher said at the time.

The Stop the Bleed kits are "one more tool in the toolbox" to potentially save lives, according to Orrville Police Chief Matt Birkbeck, who compared the kits to the officers carrying AED defibrillators or Narcan, which have already saved lives.

Tri-County Educational Service Center purchased the same kits last fall for all Wayne and Holmes county schools. Teachers and staff are being trained on how to use the equipment and possibly save the lives of their students or colleagues in an emergency.

Although they have the equipment, an officer's first duty still remains to secure the scene in the event of a stabbing or an active shooter situation.

"We need to make sure the scene is secure when EMS personnel arrive on the scene," Apple Creek Police Chief Jason Woodruff said.

Reporter Emily Morgan can be reached at 330-287-1632 or emorgan@the-daily-record.com.

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