Wake Forest Baptist Donates Trauma Kits to Winston-Salem Police

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Aug. 23, 2017 – To better prepare police officers to quickly stop severe blood loss for victims of gunshot or stab wounds, vehicle crashes or other traumatic injuries, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center is donating 100 new bleeding control kits to the Winston-Salem Police Department.

The kits contain dressings for wound packing, a hyphen seal for chest wounds and a tourniquet.

“Someone who has suffered a severe wound can die from blood loss in as little as five minutes,” said Preston R. Miller, M.D., professor of general surgery and trauma surgeon at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. “While it would be nice for these kits to never have to be used, traumatic injuries happen every day and we want to do what we can to make our community as safe as possible.”

In 2016, Wake Forest Baptist provided 200 kits to the North Carolina Highway Patrol to be used across the state by state troopers who are EMS trained.

This initiative is part of the Stop the Bleed campaign, supported by Homeland Security and the American College of Surgeons and is part of the outreach and injury prevention that Wake Forest Baptist supports as the only Level I trauma center in the region.

SOURCE: Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center