Germantown Fire Department Trains Residents in Life-Saving Measures

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Over the last year around 1,700 residents in Germantown learned hands-only CPR and AED, which is a semi-automatic difibulator.

In just a few days they'll be adding another life-saving measure to their toolbox; it's called "stop the bleed."

"The columbine shooting or sandy hook shooting we've had people that actually passed away or died because we couldn't get to them because they were trapped behind where the shooter was," said Chief Gary Weiss, Germantown Fire Department.

Stop the Bleed is a national campaign launched by the white house in 2015. It was created in response to the Sandy Hook shooting. The goal is to train people that may be bystanders in an active shooter event to help with bleeding emergencies before medical personnel arrived.

The Southeast Regional Trauma Advisory Council got a grant from the white house program, and they're supplying Germantown Fire Department with the kits that will be put in every public building in the village.

The kit includes gloves, special clotting gauze and a tourniquet.

"If it's a major artery that's cut, you could bleed to death in four to five minutes. But it's not neccessarily just for violent acts. You can have a machine shop where someone cuts their arm really bad," said Chief Weiss.

Germantown Fire Department has a goal to train at least 1000 residents how to stop the bleed if someone is shot or injured.

The department finished their training last last week, and they're eager to pass on what they learned to the community.

"We're just putting more rescuers on the street, and that's the whole purpose of this, and then God forbid that horrible event happens... we'll have people prepared," said Chief Weiss.

On Wednesday, teachers at St. Boniface will be the first in Germantown to be trained.

Germantown Fire Department also says they are willing to train any company, organization or business in these lifesaving measures.

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