CUBA CITY—Two significant donations were made to the Cuba City School District this week as blood control kits were established in each building.
The purchase of the blood control kits was initiated after the school’s Safety Week in October, where a teacher asked if staff who were already trained in emergency medical services could administer care in the event of an emergency.
“That question evolved into what was available to them for caring for injured people,” Cuba City Police Chief Terry Terpstra said. “There has been a huge push recently to equip law enforcement with their own tourniquets in case of an emergency to increase an individual’s time to make it to a hospital.”
Terpstra said his original plan was to purchase a kit for each classroom in both school buildings, but that wasn’t feasible financially. Instead he found a larger case that could be mounted on a wall that included eight individual tourniquet kits, a portable stretcher and a case. He proposed purchasing two of these cases, one for each building, plus individual kits for each school-owned vehicle and the school buses.
Kevin and Diane Casey agreed to purchase a case for the elementary/middle school building and the Cuba City Lions Club has purchased the case for the high school building. Each case costs $898. An additional 11 individual kits were purchased for the school-owned vehicles and school buses in Cuba City.
“These kits will be invaluable if a student has a major cut or injury that requires blood control,” Terpstra said. “Every second counts when it comes to traumatic injuries and these donations make us one step closer in being prepared.”
Each individual kit has a tourniquet, blood clotting bandages, regular bandages, a pair of gloves, a marker and scissors.
There are no expiration dates on any of the equipment included in the kit. Terpstra said the equipment should last a very long time. The case holding eight kits and the portable stretcher is next to the AED (automated external defibrillator) in each building, located near the gymnasium. In the elementa-ry/middle school building, it is at the entrance to the gym near the cafeteria; in the high school building it is near the southwest corner of the hallway outside the gymnasium.
“We wanted to put them close to where the biggest crowds gather in each building,” Terpstra said.
Terpstra said the next step will be to train the staff how to use the kits. He hopes to have a professional from Southwest Health come to the school on an in-service day to train the staff how to use the equipment. He foresees all school staff being trained.
“I think it is important for all staff to understand how to use this correctly,” Terpstra said.
The school administrators expressed their appreciation for the donation.
“We thought it was a good cause and we are glad to do it,” Kevin Casey of Casey Funeral Home said. “We try to give back to the community when we can.”
“The Lions Club feels strongly that whatever we can do locally to benefit the community is an advantage to everybody,” Jerry Sherwin, Cuba City Lions Club member, said.
