Public Access Bleeding Control (PABC) kits have been popping up across campus in preparation for May, which is Stop the Bleed Month. The EMS Club is behind the 14 new kits as part of their initiative to help make our campus safer.
The EMS Club held a tabling in the Fishbowl on Monday with demonstrations on what to do in an emergency and how a bystander could properly use a PABC kit.
Senior Trey Lengyel, a lieutenant for the EMS Club and Stop the Bleed instructor, performed the demonstrations and encouraged students to participate. Passersby could take a packet detailing the initiative and contents of the PABC kits and an American College of Surgeons (ACS) Stop the Bleed booklet that detailed what to do in an emergency.
“It’s an ever-growing problem, unfortunately, that sometimes people might get hurt on college campuses,” Lengyel said. “We’re far away from any ambulance … so having the capability to stop a bleed on campus … [allows] bystanders to help you before Public Safety gets there.”
When the EMS Club started doing CPR classes on campus, they brainstormed other things to teach in an effort to make campus safer. Lengyel has been working on the Stop the Bleed initiative for a couple of semesters, helping resources become available to the college community.
There are three types of PABC kits located across campus. Single module vacuum-sealed kits will be located with the NARCAN the EMS Club has already installed across campus. The other types of kits will have their own clearly marked wall cases.
There are PABC kits located in Mackin Hall, Bischoff Hall, The Lodge, Laurel Hall, Thomas’ Commons, The Overlook, Trustees Pavilion, Bradley Center, Adler Center, Fishbowl, Berrie Center, Athletic Fields and Learning Commons.
The PABC kits are intended for bystander use, each item is marked with step-by-step instructions for proper use and is accompanied by a Stop the Bleed emergency booklet. Each PABC kit comes equipped with a tourniquet, wounds packing gauze, emergency trauma bandage, trauma shears, a twin pack of vented chest seals, nitrile gloves, a mylar survival blanket and a permanent marker.
The EMS Club also plans to continue hosting demonstrations to better educate the Ramapo community on what to do in an emergency.
“If even a small fraction of the campus knows how to use it … Hopefully they’ll be able to make a difference,” Lengyel said.
The EMS Club currently hosts paid CPR classes for the Ramapo community, and this fundraising effort helped fund their Stop the Bleed efforts. The EMS club has also applied for potential grants and hopes to have more training opportunities available for the Ramapo community.
Lengyel plans for Stop The Bleed classes to be hosted on campus, explaining that through ACS, Ramapo is in the process of becoming an educational institution for these classes to be able to award participants official certificates.
“I hope they don’t get used,” Lengyel said. “They expire in 2030, I hope they make it to 2030 without ever being opened. However … it adds to college preparedness.”
jhammer@ramapo.edu
Featured photo by Jessica Hammer
