A new study led by Hartford HealthCare’s Dr. Lenworth Jacobs suggests that while many U.S. civilians would NewsLenworthJacobsbe willing to help victims of an active shooter or other mass casualty incident, very few have taken a first-aid course in the last two years, and those who have probably were not taught how to control bleeding.

Jacobs is chairman of the Hartford Consensus, a national protocol authored by a group of experts in the wake of the Sandy Hook school shootings. The Consensus offers a blueprint for how to increase survival in the event of mass violence.

The Consensus calls for bleeding control kits containing items such as tourniquets to be made widely available to the public, similar to fire extinguishers and heart defibrillators. It also calls for training in the use of the kits so uninjured bystanders can act immediately, instead of waiting for trained emergency responders to arrive.

“The most critical issue in major bleeding from any source is time,” said Jacobs, director of Trauma and Emergency Medicine at Hartford Hospital since 1983.

For more information about the study, click here.