Two to five minutes. That’s all it takes for a bad situation to get worse.

More to the point, that’s all it takes for a person suffering a traumatic injury to bleed to death – or to “bleed out,” in medical parlance – without proper medical attention.

That’s why St. Tammany Health System’s Trauma Services department conducts regular “Stop the Bleed” classes, a free, hourlong program through which members of the community are taught to administer simple but life-saving care to stabilize an injured person until first responders arrive.

“The number one cause of a preventable death is hemorrhage, or bleeding out,” STHS Trauma Services Manager Bethany Monistere said. “But it’s not that hard to put on a tourniquet or identify life-threatening bleeding. If you can arm citizens with this information to control bleeding, you can save someone’s life.”