Once a month for one hour, University of Texas Pre-med student Claire Zagorski teaches a life-saving tool.
Zagorski believes knowing how to do use this tool can mean the difference between life and death. She’s spearheading the "Stop the Bleed, Save a Life" campaign at UT.
The class, held for one hour once a month, is open to UT students and staff. Zagorski demonstrates how to help save the lives of people in life-threatening medical emergencies.
“I kind of liken it to CPR instead of helping someone whose heart has stopped, you're helping someone who might bleed to death,” Zagorski said.
The Pre-med student said the death of UT freshman Harrison Brown in 2017 is part of the reason the university needs the class.
“I read an article in the Daily Texan, our school paper, about and they quoted a bystander who said 'This was so horrifying because he was laying there hurt and I could do nothing but wait' and I started crying,” Zagorski said.
The training also covers how to use a tourniquet. It’s a nylon band you apply to a wound with a twist of a stick to stop the bleeding. Zagorski said she's surprised by the feedback the campaign has received from students.
Zagorski has trained more than 500 students since October and wants multiple tourniquets in each building on campus by October.
“There's a lot that we can do, but you have to know, you have to be taught,” Zagorski said.
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