Ocean County school district takes action with lifesaving wound kits

😷Wound kits are available at one NJ school district

😷They are designed to help staff treat patients before EMTs arrive

😷The district has 40 kits and is hoping for more

BAYVILLE — Wound kits designed to help staff treat patients before first responders arrive on the scene have been distributed throughout one Ocean County school district.

About 40 cosmetic-bag-sized wound kits containing life-saving supplies such as tourniquets, gauze, chest seals (special bandages designed for deep wounds like stab or gunshot wounds), and a blanket can be found in the common areas in the Central Regional schools in Bayville, said Schools Superintendent Dr. Michelle CarneyRay-Yoder.

The Inspiration

She wanted these kits in light of the school shootings that have happened across the U.S. in past years, most notably the one in Parkland, Florida, on Valentine’s Day 2018, when 17 people were killed, and 18 others wounded by a former student.

It’s been her mission to make her schools safer and to give staffers the ability to intervene in a situation, CarneyRay-Yoder said.

She’s especially grateful to the “Make Our Schools Safe” Foundation, which is a non-profit started by Lori Alhadeff, in memory of her daughter, Alyssa, who was 14 years old when she died in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida.

The foundation donated $10,000 to the Central Regional School District to get the wound kits program started, CarneyRay-Yoder said.

The Wound Kits

The wound kits are not necessarily meant for a tragedy, like a school shooting. They could also be used if, say, someone got injured in a woodshop class, she said.

There are many situations where the bleeding needs to be stopped, but without the proper gear, it could be too late. So, that’s the purpose of these kits, CarneyRay-Yoder said.

“Right now, we have 40 (wound kits) deployed in the district. What we’re trying to do is raise a little bit more money to get them out into all of our classrooms,” she said.

The kits are currently found in common areas and hallways throughout Central Regional’s middle and high schools. CarneyRay-Yoder wants them available in each and every classroom so every teacher has access to them.

Training

Currently, 150 staffers have been trained on the kits. “We have about 450 staff members district-wide. My goal is to hopefully have all of them trained by the middle of next year, and I’m still trying to raise about $38,000 in order to provide every single classroom and every single area in my building with one of those kits,” she added.

While having a school nurse on staff is very important, CarneyRay-Yoder believes if every staff member is trained on these wound kits, then not every situation will require a nurse.

Staffers are trained on how to use tourniquets, how to use gauze, and how to close up a wound with the seals provided in the kits to stop the bleeding before getting the patient to a proper medical facility.

CarneyRay-Yoder is accepting monetary donations to get more wound kits.
She is a big believer in not only being prepared for emergencies, but being over-prepared.

Earlier in her career, she recalled an incident where one of her students was injured in her classroom. CarneyRay-Yoder said she didn’t have the proper materials to help the student. She had no tourniquet and no gloves, but she made do. The student was fine.

“But I don’t want to put people in that situation as a leader. “I really want to make sure that our students and our staff have the materials they need in order to be safe, and hopefully we never have to use them,” CarneyRay-Yoder said.

She said it’s important that everyone in her school district is prepared for emergencies, should they need to respond.

The good news is that so far, they have not had to use any of the available wound kits.

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