This is another installment in The Birmingham Times/AL.com/CBS42 joint series “Beyond the Violence: What can be done to address Birmingham’s rising homicide rate.”

Medical professionals with UAB Hospital’s trauma center on Saturday demonstrated ways community members can stop a bleeding wound and help save lives.

Libby Callan, a registered nurse, said it is important for citizens to learn life saving techniques especially if first responders are on the way and won’t be on the scene immediately.

“We are here to teach the general public how to stop life threatening bleeding using pressure packets and tourniquets,” Callan told mothers of What About Us, a Birmingham-based nonprofit organization that provides support services for those who have experienced the loss of a child.

The group held its first Stop the Bleed event in Center Point with UAB in attendance.

Callan said the training is important because the skills can be useful in a number of scenarios. “It can be a car accident, natural disaster, accident in the home, or a gunshot wound, and these are ways this (the training) can be utilized,” she said.

Callan added it was essential for UAB’S Hospital Trauma Center “to spread the word on how to stop the bleed and save lives” as well as give away free gunlocks.

Jefferson County Commissioner Lashunda Scales told the attendees it is disheartening to see family members or friends on the ground trying to survive and can’t be helped, which is why it is vital for all attendees to learn how to save a life by stopping the bleed.

“I’m tired of having candlelight vigils,” Scales said. “There’s a culture of violence that we have come to accept. We have to start holding people accountable.”

The day was somber for three of the moms — Sheree Kennon, Catrina Carey and Rose Johnson – all of whom lost sons to gun violence on February 25. (Johnson and Carey 2020; Kennon 2021).

“To see UAB attend our event was major,” Johnson said. “So many of our youth are rushed to UAB Hospital with injuries, especially with a gunshot wound and to see representation of the hospital speaks volume.”

In addition, Johnson said Saturday’s event was another opportunity to encourage the youth to put the guns down and learn to stop the bleed. “We might not be able to save everyone but to reach one is enough,” she said.

To learn more about What About Us email Sheree Kennon at [email protected] or [email protected]