New bleed kits 'could make a difference' to saving lives

A FIREFIGHTER who had offered to buy a critical bleed control kit for his community found himself using one a couple of days later when two children whose father lay bleeding on the pavement outside knocked on his door.

- RICHARD YOULE Senior local democracy reporter

Steve Richards, of Bryngwyn Village, Gorseinon, initially used tea towels and tissues to try to stem the flow of blood from the head of Matthew Williams, who had tripped while trying to catch a rugby ball, but it kept seeping through.

Mr Richards' wife Leanne phoned for an ambulance, and it emerged there was a bleed control kit located in a defibrillator box outside nearby Gorseinon Fire Station.

Mrs Richards collected it, and her husband then deployed it to staunch Mr Williams' bleeding before driving him to Morriston Hospital as there was a lengthy wait for an ambulance.

There are now 420 publicly accessible critical bleed control kits in Swansea and Neath Port Talbot - mainly in defibrillator boxes - thanks to an initiative by the former High Sheriff of West Glamorgan, Melanie James.

They contain a tourniquet, a special type of gauze and chest seal dressing, gloves, scissors, foil blanket, resuscitation shield and instructions showing which type of dressing to apply to which part of the body.