Northern Arizona Healthcare (NAH) announced that it has donated 43 new Bleeding Control Stations to Flagstaff Unified School District (FUSD). The stations will be available at school sites to help save lives and stop life-threatening bleeding during an emergency. The new stations were made possible by a $25,000 donation from NAH’s Office of Philanthropy and a $3,000 donation from Trauma and Acute Care Surgeons of Northern Arizona. NAH has delivered these Bleeding Control Stations to FUSD facilities. They are being installed in all 15 schools, Camp Colton and district offices in the next couple of weeks. Most locations will receive multiple stations.
The first minutes following a traumatic injury are crucial in saving a life. Uncontrolled bleeding can result in death within minutes – even before emergency medical services or other emergency responders can arrive. NAH operates a Stop the Bleed community training program to help educate our region on how to save a person’s life in an emergency. The program is spearheaded by Shawn Bowker, Injury Prevention Outreach Coordinator for Flagstaff Medical Center Trauma Services. Bowker has been leading Stop the Bleed outreach classes since 2018. The national Stop the Bleed program aims to build community resilience by better preparing the public to save lives by raising awareness of basic actions to stop life threatening bleeding following everyday emergencies and man-made or natural disasters. Flagstaff Medical Center’s Trauma Center, northern Arizona’s only Level I Trauma facility, operates our local Stop the Bleed training. The team donated a training kit to FUSD and has been teaching district employees and school nurses to be instructors so they can train their own staff. School bus drivers are being trained on these stations as well.
“We feel privileged that we were able to help out our partners at the Flagstaff United School District with this contribution,” said NAH’s Chief Philanthropy Officer, Larry Kushner. “These Bleeding Control Station donations are an important obligation to our community in helping keep students safe. We know that lives can be saved if people are trained properly on using these stations during an emergency, and we hope having these stations at each school will give families in Flagstaff peace of mind,” added Kushner.
“The Flagstaff Unified School District is grateful for the generous support of the NAH Office of Philanthropy to provide Stop the Bleed kits and training for all of our schools and worksites,” said Superintendent of Flagstaff Unified School District, Michael A. Penca. “This partnership better equips our school staff to act quickly and effectively to make a difference in the event of a serious accident or emergency.”
Northern Arizona Healthcare donates 43 new Bleeding Control Stations to Flagstaff Unified School District. From left is Larry Kushner, NAH Chief Philanthropy Officer; McKenzie Bevirt, FUSD Health Services Coordinator; Michael A. Penca, Superintendent of FUSD; Maraka Oltrogge, NAH Vice President of Philanthropy; Shawn Bowker, Injury Prevention Outreach Coordinator for Flagstaff Medical Center Trauma Services.
For more than 50 years, NAH has provided the highest quality health care to our patients and communities in northern Arizona. NAH is committed to improving health and healing people, a mission that health care colleagues work to achieve each day through serving the community.
For more information on Stop the Bleed, please visit https://www.stopthebleed.org/.