Last week, Officer Derek Holmes was given a Life-Saving Award by the West Liberty Police Department and the City of West Liberty for using his training and passion for the job to save a life while on duty. Holmes celebrated this occasion with his police chief and his family as well as the family of the child he saved being in attendance. Holmes’ life saving feat came at the start of this year on January 29 when a 911 call came in at 1:06 p.m. The closest one to the incident, Holmes was dispatched to assist with an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound.

West Liberty officer honored with Life Saving award after saving 11 year old

The Muscatine Journal || Dec 11th

By Andrea Grubaugh

(part 2) According to the report, 11-year-old Will Daufeldt had been with his family at his grandparents’ house about two miles south of West Liberty when he was shot in the abdomen when a shotgun was dropped. Once he arrived on the scene, Holmes said that he had relied on both his instincts and his training when it came to his assessing of the situation. At the time, Holmes had recently received his instructor certification for the “Stop the Bleed” program, having given a presentation on how to pack a serious bleeding wound for West Liberty School District just two months prior. As such, the training he needed for the situation was fresh in his mind, something Holmes said he saw as a “weird coincidence”.

South Carolina establishes school safety center

WMBF News || Dec 13th

By Patrick Phillips and Mary Green

Gov. Henry McMaster held a ceremonial signing Wednesday morning for a bill that establishes a school safety center to better train law enforcement and educators on preventing and responding to safety threats. The Center for School Safety and Targeted Violence, which House Bill H.3360 establishes, will be housed at the Old Gilbert Elementary School in Lexington County and will provide a training location for law enforcement officers in the form of a real school setting. “I think that everyone knows that recent events across the country, show us that we must do all we can to prepare our law enforcement, school personnel, our students, parents and community for these unimaginable events,” said South Carolina Law Enforcement Division Director Mark Keel.

“The Center for School Safety and Targeted Violence will train personnel year-round at an actual school environment, and that was the big advantage to having a facility like this. In an effort to identify issues and those troubled students before there’s a crisis, we’ll provide mental health first aid for children and adults in rescue task force training with our other first responder agencies like our fire and EMS. We’ll do tactical bus assault training, and “stop the bleed” training. We’ll include our community members in that training as well if they would like.”

Natalia Moure, an ICU nurse, helped save the life of a man who was stabbed in McAllen, TX. Moure stopped her car in the middle of the road after seeing a man running down the road with multiple open wounds clearly visible after the attacker apparently hit an artery in his arm.

"I just knew there was not any time left to leave him bleeding. So I just parked and had him lay down," Moure said.

ICU nurse saves McAllen stabbing victim

KRGV.com || December 14

(page 2) Moure said she took a t-shirt from her car to make a tourniquet she tied to as tightly as she could around the victim's arm, giving him enough time for first responders to come by and give him aid. Moure added it's important to raise awareness of how you can respond in a situation where someone is bleeding out and has minutes to live.

@mastaterepmvaughn

Instagram || December 14

“Building a safer Massachusetts with the Trauma Response Preparedness Act! This legislation ensures public buildings and schools are equipped with accessible trauma kits for serious bleeds, overseen by trained individuals. Efficiency meets preparedness as AED providers also double as Trauma Kit Designees. Transparency is key with mandated reporting on kit availability and designated personnel.”

@rochester_fire_department

Instagram || December 14

“Thank you to East High School for hosting our EMS team, who gave a great @stopthebleedproject presentation to your students. If you are interested in scheduling a presentation, visit the link in our bio!”

@bos.poland

Instagram || December 17

“A short summary of the classes with @fundacja_to_sie_uda. It was a pretty cool initiative “IV edition give the gift of the holidays.” During @stopthebleedproject classes, about 120 foster care children learned how to set up tactical tracks like FR19G2 (@rhinorescue_), CAT from (@paxbags.pl), SOFT-T5 (@tacmed_solutions), SAM-XT (@sammedical), RAPIDSTOP and PAX (@foregroup.pl). During the class, teenagers practiced wrapping deep wounds using ONA-WP-001 trianers with the help of RhinoRescue and JTB @jb_tacticals. Our classes were positively received by the children and we heard it was one of the best classes they have had…” (translated from Polish)

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