Stop the Bleed is a national program that teaches ordinary people to control severe bleeding with direct pressure, wound packing and tourniquets. It grew out of military research. That research showed that bleeding causes most preventable deaths after serious injury. Since the White House launched the campaign in 2015, more than 5 million people have been trained. As of May 2025, at least 14 states required bleeding control kits in schools or public spaces.
The program rests on a simple fact. A person with a severe bleed can die in minutes, often before an ambulance arrives. The first person able to help is most often a bystander. Stop the Bleed exists to make that bystander useful.
What the Battlefield Taught Medicine
The clearest proof comes from Iraq and Afghanistan. A landmark study of 4,596 U.S. battlefield deaths from 2001 to 2011 found that 87% of those who died never reached a place for treatment. About a quarter of those deaths were likely survivable. Bleeding caused more than 90% of the survivable cases.
The military responded by changing how it treated wounds at the point of injury. Under Tactical Combat Casualty Care rules, troops carried tourniquets and learned to use them early. A 2009 study of wounded troops in Baghdad found 90% survival when tourniquets went on before shock set in, compared with 10% when applied after. No limbs were lost because of tourniquet use.
Surgeons who served in those wars brought the lessons home. Business Insiders has profiled a trauma surgeon with decades of military and civilian experience. It has also covered a keynote calling for stronger civilian and military trauma readiness. Both show how much modern civilian trauma care owes to combat medicine.
From Sandy Hook to a National Campaign
The civilian movement began after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in December 2012. In April 2013, Dr. Lenworth Jacobs, acting for the American College of Surgeons, called a meeting at Hartford Hospital. It brought together trauma surgeons, the FBI, FEMA, military medicine and EMS leaders. The group, known as the Hartford Consensus, set out to help more people survive mass casualty events.
Later meetings shifted the focus to the public. The group decided that bystanders, not just police and paramedics, needed to act as first responders. That idea became Stop the Bleed. The White House launched it in October 2015, and the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma leads it.
How Many People Have Been Trained?
In July 2025, the American College of Surgeons announced that more than 5 million people had completed Stop the Bleed training. More than 180,000 instructors have taught it in all 50 states and at least 141 countries. Courses take around 90 minutes and cover three actions: apply firm pressure, pack deep wounds and use a tourniquet on a limb when needed.
Does It Work for Civilians?
Civilian research backs up the military findings. A 2018 study looked at more than 1,000 patients with limb injuries at 11 Level I trauma centers. It found that tourniquet use before the hospital was linked to about six times lower odds of death, after adjusting for other factors.
Bleeding is still a major cause of preventable death in American cities. A review of every trauma death in Harris County, Texas, in 2014 found that 45% of bleeding deaths were likely preventable. Many happened before the patient reached a hospital.
The evidence is not one-sided. A single-center study published in 2019 found that tourniquet use rose sharply over five years and no tourniquet patients died. But it did not show a clear survival gap compared with similar patients. It also noted problems in some cases. On the whole, researchers read the full body of evidence as strong support for early bleeding control, with proper training.
States Are Writing It Into Law
Lawmakers have moved bleeding control from optional to required in many places. Texas passed House Bill 496 in 2019. It requires bleeding control stations at every public and charter school campus. It also requires staff training and yearly lessons for students in grade 7 and up. Washington followed in 2024 with a law that requires bleeding control kits in schools by the 2026 to 2027 school year. Virginia added a school kit rule in 2025.
The American College of Surgeons reported in May 2025 that at least 14 states required bleeding control kits in schools or public spaces, with bills pending in 15 more.
Where Medicine Meets Public Safety
Bleeding control sits where medicine and police work meet. Police are often first on scene at shootings and crashes, and many departments now give officers tourniquets. A Dallas surgeon who also serves as a police officer stands for that overlap. He brings trauma skills right to the street.
The same logic applies to distance. In rural areas, the nearest trauma center can be an hour or more away. There, what bystanders do in the first minutes may matter even more. Our look at why trauma care access still depends on where you live covers that side of the problem.
What Businesses and Schools Can Do
- Place bleeding control kits next to AEDs in offices, warehouses, schools and venues.
- Train staff with a certified Stop the Bleed course, which takes around 90 minutes.
- Check kits on a schedule and replace old supplies.
- Include bleeding control in emergency plans and drills.
- Check state law, since some states now require kits and training in schools or public buildings.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the three steps of Stop the Bleed?
Apply firm, direct pressure. Pack deep wounds with gauze or clean cloth. Use a tourniquet on an arm or leg when pressure does not stop the bleeding.
How long does Stop the Bleed training take?
A standard course takes around 90 minutes and includes hands-on practice.
Is it safe for a bystander to apply a tourniquet?
Studies of military and civilian patients have linked early tourniquet use to better survival. Loss of a limb from a tourniquet has been rare. Training helps people put them on the right way.
The Bottom Line
Stop the Bleed turned a hard lesson from two wars into something anyone can learn in about 90 minutes. The evidence shows that early bleeding control saves lives. And the people closest to an injury are almost always bystanders. Training more of them, and putting kits within their reach, is one of the most practical safety steps a school, business or town can take. More coverage is in the healthcare section.
