You could be the one who saves a life in an emergency

Knowing what to do when tragedy or something much less severe could be key in helping save a life.

Saturday is 'National Stop the Bleed Day' and as a result Jersey Shore University Medical Center is hosting a free training session for you who could be a bystander that transforms into a life saver.

JSUMC Pediatric Trauma Program Manager Christine Frugard says you could very well be the one who begins the life saving process in a bleeding emergency.

"No matter how quickly help arrives, your bystander is always going to be the first one on the scene and since a person can bleed to death within 5-minutes, it's really critical to stop the bleeding quickly," Frugard said.

She says you'll learn several helpful techniques like, "holding pressure, applying a tourniquet and other techniques that can be used to save a life."

You'll be trained on how to use what's called a tourniquet should that be a way to stop the bleeding in an emergency.

"If you have a bleed on your arm or your leg, we actually show how to use a tourniquet in the training and we let the participants practice using one and then we go over what you could use in place of a tourniquet if you don't have one," Frugard said.

She explains that someone can bleed to death within 5-minutes, so your reaction and response time is critical as well as knowing what to do.

"It's really just empowering, let's just say in a school, the teacher to just apply and hold pressure but it's teaching them at the same time...don't just hold pressure, but hold pressure and don't let go, keep holding pressure until medical help comes," Frugard said.

This training session Saturday is for regular everyday people.

"It's for somebody who has no medical background at all," Frugard said. "It'll give them the techniques such as holding pressure or how to apply a tourniquet which sometimes you may not have so it's really just holding the pressure and what you can do before medical help arrives."

She encourages everyone to attend this life saving seminar.

"Anytime you can save a life, it's better than not trying," Frugard said. "With the right training, you can help save a life."

There are two sessions tomorrow morning, one at 9:00 am and the other at 11:00 am and they'll run about an hour each in length and hosted by members from the Trauma Team, nurses, techs and local EMS staff.

The training sessions will be held in the Jersey Shore University Medical Center Lance Auditorium.

If you can't make it tomorrow but still want to attend a training session, you can!

There will be two more, one on May 17 from 5:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. and the other on June 21 from 5:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m

For more information and to register, call 1-800-560-9990.