DGMC offers ‘Stop the Bleed’ class

  • Published
  • By Merrie Schilter-Lowe
  • 60th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – Self-aid buddy care training ensures that Airmen know how to stop a gunshot wound or accident victim from bleeding to death.

Now, anyone without medical training can learn the same life-saving techniques in an upcoming class.

The David Grant USAF Medical Center at Travis Air Force Base, California, will offer a “Stop the Bleed” class 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. June 20 from in the Internal Medicine Clinic’s conference room.

“We plan to teach the importance of basic bleeding control and how it saves lives,” said Tech. Sgt. Donald Hecker, 60th Medical Group Internal Medicine Clinic NCO in charge. “In a mass casualty event, massive blood loss is the leading cause of preventable deaths.”

“Stop the Bleed” is a national awareness campaign that the White House and the Department of Homeland Security initiated in the wake of increased gun violence and mass casualty events in the United States.

The FBI reports there have been 50 active-shooter incidents in 21 states since 2016, resulting in 221 people killed and 722 wounded. The highest number of casualties occurred in 2017 during the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas, Nevada, when 58 people were killed and 489 were wounded.

Regardless of how quickly medical personnel arrive, bystanders will most likely be the first on scene at a mass casualty site, explained Airman 1st Class Kristin Graeff, 60th MDG medical technician in the Internal Medicine Clinic.

“Why not train civilian bystanders to do something?” she said.

That’s the idea behind STB.

“’Stop the Bleed’ is a fantastic course and sounds like a parallel track to SABC,” said Col. Dee-Ann Lees, 60th MDG chief nurse. “Both courses focus on preparing potential first responders to do the right thing.”

However, STB only teaches students to use compression or a tourniquet to stop blood loss, while SABC ensures that military members have the skills needed to minimize injury and prevent death or disability in a deployed location.

“People who register for the STB course should keep in mind that this is only an introductory course to teach bystanders what to do until medical help comes,” said Hecker.

“Because bystanders are usually the first at the scene of a disaster or accident, just knowing how to stop blood loss can save someone’s life,” said Hecker. That is the reason he, Graeff, and Airman 1st Class Jose Herrera, 60th MDG medical technician, volunteered to become the base’s first STB trainers.

At age 12, and without any training, Herrera used compression to help save his younger brother’s life.


“He jumped off my aunt’s house and fell and hit his head,” said Herrera. “He was unconscious and bleeding. I didn’t know what to do but, I grabbed a towel and wrapped his head and stayed with him until the ambulance came.”

Although his brother required a number of stitches, he fully recovered, said Herrera.


Fortunately, the procedures to stop blood loss are the same for children and adults, he said.


Every year, more than 146,500 Americans die because of unintentional injuries, including accidental falls and traffic accidents, according to the Center for Disease Prevention and Control.

In 2017, accidental injury became the third leading cause of death in the United States, according to the National Safety Council.


STB students will learn to control bleeding with the materials on hand, including the victim’s clothing, belt or shoestrings.

Graeff’s instincts prompted her to use bed sheets to control a patient’s bleeding.

While working as a scribe for an emergency room doctor before she enlisted, Graeff was temporarily left alone with a patient who had suffered massive blood loss when he sliced his leg in a chainsaw accident.

“The paramedics had stapled his wounds, but he freaked out and started pulling them out,” said Graeff. “I grabbed him and covered his leg with the sheets then used my body to try and hold his hands.”

Depending on the location and severity of a wound, a person can bleed to death in just five minutes, said Hecker.

“We have learned in the deployed setting – prior to the arrival of medical personnel – that the use of direct pressure and tourniquets have increased survivability of limb wounds by about 85 percent,” said Hecker.

At his first Air Force duty station, which was at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, Hecker put his emergency medical technician training to use when a stabbing occurred outside a local department store.

“(People) were screaming and, as you can imagine, me being a fairly new medic, I ran toward the screams,” said Hecker.

Hecker applied direct pressure to a sizeable gash on the victim’s arm.

“Once I stopped the bleeding, I brought the member inside (the store) and contacted the manager who contacted EMS and law enforcement,” said Hecker. “When it was all said and done, I'm honestly glad that I was there and knew what to do.”

With training, a bystander will have the tools to act, even if their first reaction is panic.

“Panic is an absolutely normal reaction, especially when dealing with a mass shooting,” said Hecker. “I don’t believe you can teach someone not to panic, but you can teach them how to work through it with coping mechanisms such as breathing exercises. Teaching bystanders that they may be the victim’s only hope also is a strong motivator.”

Hecker, Herrera and Graeff plan to draw on personal experiences in class.

“We hope to give people the confidence to do something when they may be the only bystander there,” said Herrera.

To register for the class, email donald.w.hecker.mil@mail.mil.