In 2019, Amsterdam UMC trauma surgeon Leo Geeraedts received the 2nd prize of the Amsterdam UMC Societal Impact Award for the 'Stop the bleed - save a life' campaign. He is initiator and project manager of this campaign and first aid course that informs and teaches lay bystanders to act as immediate responders on life-threatening blood loss. Last week they published their highlights in their annual report.

On December 15, 2016 non-profit campaign and first aid course 'Stop de bloeding - red een leven' (Stop the bleed - save a life) was launched in the Netherlands to create public awareness about control of life-threatening hemorrhage and to teach lay bystanders how to stop the bleed and save a life. Since then substantial progress have been made.

2019 and 2020 were marked with many highlights for the project. And new milestones have been reached for Stop the bleed - save a life. The national roll-out has now been enforced by the engagement of a total five other Trauma centers and their Trauma Area Networks. Also, official conjunction with two comprehensive Dutch First Aid Organizations was established: The Orange Cross (Het Oranje Kruis) and The Red Cross (Het Rode Kruis), in an upbeat for national standardization of the Stop the bleed - save a life training course. In a collaboration with the Dutch National Police and the Dutch Police Academy, a course was prepared in order to teach 35.000 Law Enforcement Officers how to perform first aid in life-threatening hemorrhage. As of March 4 2020, 10.690 people have followed either the instructor- or provider course. Stop the bleeding - save a life was awarded the best scientific poster prize at the World Congress of Surgery in 2019 and was runner-up (2nd prize) for the Societal Impact Award 2019 of Amsterdam UMC. You can find the annual report 2019-2020 (PDF) here (in Dutch).

Mission Stop the bleed - save a life
The mission of Stop the bleed - save a life is that no more victims should die from uncontrolled external blood loss due to injury in the Netherlands. By creating awareness through education and by teaching skills through training, they try to achieve this goal. Their mission is accomplished when all residents of the Netherlands (16 years and older) know how to act in the event of life-threatening blood loss.

Read more at www.stopdebloedingredeenleven.nl.