Military-grade emergency bleeding kits placed on MU’s campus

The University of Missouri has placed 125 “Stop the Bleed” kits around campus in case of blood loss and trauma during events such as emergencies, injuries, bombings and mass shootings.

The kit includes a military-grade tourniquet to stop someone from bleeding and to buy time for first responders to arrive.

“We know the leading cause of death in Americans between the age of 1 to 50 is trauma, 40 percent of those deaths are actually because of bleeding,” said Kassie Campbell, MU nurse clinician and event coordinator for Stop the Bleed. “Putting a tourniquet on and applying pressure and packing a wound we can essentially save lives.”

MU is one of the first universities in the United States to place these kits on campus.

“If someone has an arterial bleed, they can die within four minutes from that bleed, so essential bystander care to the civilian is essential in helping that person make it to the hospital,” Campbell said.

MU’s School of Medicine received a $100,000 donation to purchase the kits and placed them next to defibrillators on campus.

“You’ll hear the term first-responder as if we are completely dependent on fire and ambulance personnel to come,” said MU Health Care trauma doctor Jeffrey Coughenour. The kits are part of a push to “help educate the public, staff and students across campus to be able to serve as immediate responders.”

“The first step is providing the kits and the second step is providing the training. We are going to empower all the students on campus to have the training to save lives if an emergency were to happen,” Campbell said.

Stop the Bleed is part of a national campaign organized by The Department of Homeland Security.