New Program At Temple Hospital Gives Community Tools To Aid Gunshot Victims
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Temple Hospital is trying to give gunshot victims a fighting chance with help from the community.
Most gunshot victims taken to Temple University Hospital survive, about 80%, but Scott Charles, the hospital's Trauma Outreach Coordinator, wants to save even more.
"We see a high rate of gun injury," Charles says. "We could either step back and wait for patients to come to us or as kind of an approach that's consistent with what we've been doing is to be proactive and go out there and put the tools in the hands of the folks who need it the most."
So a new program is teaching community members how to help a victim of gun violence to give patients a better chance of survival.
"Something as basic as apply direct pressure to a wound," Charles says. "If a person is potentially choking on their own blood, they can roll them over, we call it positional airway, we talk to them about applying tourniquets or improvising tourniquets if necessary."
He says the program, called 'Fighting Chance,' was created because neighbors asked for help.