Dr. Snuffer Raising Awareness for Emergency Response

Dr. Robert Snuffer, Emergency Room and Trauma Director at Mon Health Stonewall Jackson Memorial Hospital and Medical Director for the Gilmer/Lewis/Upshur counties Emergency Medical Squads, has two important projects underway to raise funds and awareness for emergency response.

The first is to create trauma response kits for local EMS, sheriff's departments, and 911 Centers. The second project is to educate the public on the national STOP THE BLEED® campaign.

"My goal is to give our first responders the necessary tools they need if they should face a major accident or disaster with trauma response kits. Because of my military background, we have a good idea of the necessities our first responders would need to take care of multiple patients. At this time, they don't have that equipment," said Dr. Snuffer. "The second project is to prepare people to help victims in an emergency."

Plans for the trauma response kits include tourniquets, emergency trauma dressings, junctional tourniquets, and combat gauze. Dr. Snuffer is raising money to fund the kits with a goal of purchasing between 50 and 100 of each component.

The American College of Surgeons (ACS) STOP THE BLEED® campaign is a program to build national 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 and natural disasters.

"The goal is to stop people from dying in emergency situations," Dr. Snuffer said. "Hemorrhage is the number one preventable cause of death, and if we can teach the public what to do in these emergencies, we can save lives. If we stop the bleeding, that gives us time to get the victim to an ER where they can be better cared for."

Lewis County has the appropriate STOP THE BLEED® kits ordered for schools and law enforcement. As the education effort grows, kits can be expanded to other locations throughout the county. Dr. Snuffer explained that training is easy and can take one to two hours to complete.

To learn more about the ACS STOP THE BLEED® program, visit stopthebleed.org. To learn more about Mon Health Stonewall Jackson Memorial Hospital, visit StonewallJacksonHospital.com.