DES MOINES, Iowa — Thursday morning legislators will meet with a trauma surgeon at UnityPoint Iowa Methodist Medical Center’s Trauma Center for Stop the Bleed training.

May is Stop the Bleed month. The organization works to teach as many people as possible life-saving first aid steps.

Uncontrolled bleeding is the number one cause of preventable death following injury. Each year around 2,300 people in Iowa die from injury and 40% of those deaths are due to bleeding.

Dr. Rick Sidwell, a Trauma Surgeon at Unity Point Iowa Methodist Medical Center, is the surgeon meeting with legislators and said that his goal is for legislators to take action.

“The purpose of the event on Thursday is to raise some awareness, show legislators what is out there. The ultimate goal would be to find some way to get training and equipment to all the people in the state of Iowa so that we can save lives.” Dr. Sidwell said.

Dr. Sidwell said that one of the best ways to teach everyone the life-saving Stop the Bleed skills is to require it as a high school course.

“Ideally we would want everybody to learn how to do this basic first aid. Learning how to do it is easy, the course is half an hour maybe 45 minutes, when you do it it’s very hands-on and actually kind of fun. One good way of getting this to everybody would be to teach students when they’re in school and then over time everybody learns the basics,” Dr. Sidwell said.

To learn more about Stop the Bleed or to sign up for courses visit Stop the Bleed’s website.