Buckhead, Midtown, Downtown Shares Trauma Kits for Atlanta Police

October 2,2014

The Buckhead Coalition today, through its president, former Atlanta Mayor Sam Massell, introduced a trauma kit pilot program for front-line police on patrol.  Massell announced its staff learned of this high-tech tourniquet unit through its Sister Community relationship with the British Island of Bermuda. 

Governor George Fergusson of Bermuda publicly praised the use of such safety equipment to Police Commissioner Michael DeSilva, [to view this discussion, go to http://www.royalgazette.com/article/20140625/NEWS/140629816] which the Coalition is emulating.  It was explained that two out of three police officers who die in the line of duty do so from loss of blood, and a kit like this, as standard equipment, can make the difference at the site, for public safety personnel as well as wounded citizens.  As a result, the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office (equivalent to our U.S. State Dept.) is supplying these kits to all of their Caribbean front-line officers. 

When arranging to undertake this pilot initiative for Buckhead’s APD Zone 2, Atlanta Police Chief George Turner suggested it be offered city-wide.  Responding, Mayor Massell invited A.J. Robinson, president of downtown’s Central Atlanta Progress (CAP) and the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District (ADID), and Kevin Green, president of Midtown Alliance, to participate equally, which each has agreed to do. 

The Coalition has also learned that such equipment is used in the U.S. Virgin Island of St. Croix where former Police Chief Christopher Howell’s life was saved when, after sustaining multiple gunshot wounds, he was able to apply this type of tourniquet.  To express the Coalition’s interest, Massell visited with the current St. Croix Chief, James Parris, who incidentally has purchased a home in metropolitan Atlanta were he plans to live after retirement.

The Trauma Plate Pack, obtained from a California firm (Officer Survival Solutions, OSS), contains a hemostatic gauze, SWAT-T Tactical Wrap Tourniquet, OSS Combat Compression Dressing, pair of tactical nitrile gloves, and a field application card.  The trauma kits are in specially-designed “skip packs” and have a three-year shelf-life.  The initial distribution will provide thirty for Buckhead, thirty for Midtown, and thirty for Downtown, in an introductory program for a city-wide coverage budget estimated at approximately $75,000.

Massell iterated the Coalition’s mission as “Nurturing the quality of life of those who live, visit, work, and play in its 28-square-miles”, and asked “What could be more important than saving the life of even one person, particularly one in law enforcement?”  In the past, the Coalition has undertaken other health-related initiatives, such as placing automatic external (cardiac-arrest) defibrillators on public properties, contributing blood pressure monitors to apartment buildings, and negotiating funds to support Shepherd Center medical care for injured youth.