County’s school classrooms to get trauma kits

Jessica Loch, Jill Nielson, Sheriff Randy Strong and MPS Sergeant Ryan Glidden have been instrumental in getting the trauma kits to area schools.

Every classroom in the county will soon receive a specialized trauma kit to prepare it for emergencies.

Maryville Public Safety Detective Sergeant Ryan Glidden was awarded $27,848 to purchase 400 trauma kits to be placed in every classroom and administrative office in all six Nodaway County school districts and in each Maryville school. He partnered with the Nodaway County Sheriff’s Department and applied for and received the funds from a Gladys Rickard Charitable Trust grant that awards money for projects benefiting Nodaway County.

In 2016, Glidden took the initiative to apply for a grant to fund creating a trauma kit for every Maryville Public Safety officer, helping them to provide better care when arriving on the scene of an accident.

This year, Glidden wanted to continue to improve safety and the quality of first responder care in the community.

When a traumatic event happens at a school, teachers are the first responders. It can take emergency personnel up to 20 minutes to travel to the outlying school districts. It only takes approximately five minutes for a person to bleed to death.

In the event of a school-violence event, the primary duty of the officers arriving on the scene is to stop the violence and secure the area. This has to occur before the officers and emergency personnel can focus on the wounded. This can take a lot of time, leaving the teachers to administer first aid.

“Sergeant Glidden and I were at the Abbey shooting. It’s real and it’s ugly,” Nodaway County Sheriff Randy Strong said.

The kits were custom designed by Chinook Medical Gear, Durango, CO, and resemble the trauma bags the officers carry. Each kit contains two modular bandages, two types of tourniquets, an elastic bandage wrap, EMT shears, a roll of tape and four pairs of sterile gloves, enough supplies to treat more than one injury.

The vacuum-sealed kits do not carry anti-clotting bandages due to the extensive training required to use them and the material’s short shelf-life.

Nodaway County Paramedic and Dispatcher Jill Nielson will conduct training sessions for all of the school districts on properly using the materials including how to apply the tourniquet to themselves and others.

She hopes to have all school personnel trained by the end of the school year and has already begun planning refresher courses and new-employee training.

“The teachers have mixed emotions. They are excited for the kits, but hope they never have to use them,” Glidden said. “I think with the kits we can empower them in an emergency.”