16 Memorial Medical Milestones • 2024 Issue 1 As the region’s leader in trauma care, Lake Charles Memorial Health System (LCMHS) has taken on the responsibility of providing injury prevention education to the community, as well as high-level training to medical professionals and members of the community responsible for the provision of trauma care. Here are three of our programs helping to make a difference. Sudden Impact The trauma team is actively engaged in a statewide effort to reduce distracted and impaired driving among teenage drivers, called Sudden Impact. The robust program in SWLA targets teens in their sophomore, junior and senior years of high school. There are three parts to the program: a classroom setting at the hospital, a mock car crash featuring student actors and a mock legal trial to show the consequences of poor decisions. The program aims to reduce the number of deaths from the No. 1 cause of death in teenagers: distracted or impaired driving. In the 2022–2023 school year, the LCMHS trauma and outreach team engaged with four local high schools. For the 2023–2024 school year, the team is on track to increase that number to eight. Here’s what students are saying about Sudden Impact: • “I thought it would be funny to see the mock crash and see our friends acting, but they made it believable and made me realize this can happen to me.” —Jennings High School student • “Seeing all of the police and firemen who go to crashes was crazy. There are so many people who have to respond, and I can’t imagine the sad things they see.” —Sulphur High School student • “I didn’t realize how important it was to buckle up in the back seat, but I will always wear my seat belt. I do not want my family to be affected by a bad decision that I make.” —South Beauregard High School student STOP THE BLEED training Members of the trauma team regularly train community groups about a lifesaving technique: how to apply a tourniquet and pack wounds. This education is helpful in cases where the first person on the scene of a wreck or other trauma is not a first responder or medical professional. While they wait for the professionals, they can apply what they’ve learned in this training to help STOP THE BLEED. Someone who is severely losing blood can bleed to death in as little as five minutes. This is why STOP THE BLEED training teaches bleeding control and helps regular people do an extraordinary thing: save lives. Be a lifesaver To schedule your group or organization for a complimentary STOP THE BLEED training, please call 337-284-0780. Trauma training for the COMMUNITY
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjI2MTU5NA==