LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Officials today touted new potentially life-saving ``Stop the Bleed'' kits that are being installed at Los Angeles International Airport.
Noting that a person with a traumatic injury can bleed to death in under five minutes, Los Angeles World Airways officials say the facility has joined in a national campaign with the installation of ``bleeding suppression kits'' at 103 locations in the nine terminals at LAX.
The Emergency Management Division at LAWA has ordered 250 of the kits, costing $17,125.Each kit contains a clotting bandage, tourniquet, latex gloves, an emergency trauma dressing and shears, according to LAWA.``A victim can bleed to death much faster than trained public safety personnel can arrive,'' Patrick Gannon, LAWA's deputy executive director for security and public safety said at an airport news conference with Los Angeles Fire Department officials.
``The person standing or sitting next to that individual might be the only one who can make the difference between life and death.''Armando Hogan, deputy chief with the LAFD, added that the national ``Stop the Bleed'' campaign ``was implemented to fill a critical link in the chain of survival until first-responders arrive on the scene.''The kits are stored in cabinets that also contain an Automated External Defibrillator that can help restore a normal heartbeat to someone experiencing cardiac arrest or arrhythmia.
Both the AED's and the bleed kits include instructions for bystanders' use.``The tools in these kits are extremely easy to apply and they are designed to be used by a lay rescuer, any would-be good Samaritan, to save the life of another, or even their own life,'' LAFD Medical Director Marc Eskstein said.
The fire department is training Los Angeles Airport Police as well as airport operations, Customs and Border Protection and Transportation Security Administration personnel in the use of the kits.