TRAINING:

Jennifer Crawford, trauma program manager at Rideout, teaches a Yuba County employee how to properly use a tourniquet during a “Stop the Bleed” class on Wednesday at the Government Center. scene aren’t typically emergency medical services personnel, but rather normal people thrust into chaotic situations.

“Sometimes we cannot change the situation we find ourselves in, but we can control how we handle it,” Amiri said.

The trauma team broke it down to county employees in three easy principles, or what they called the “ABC’S of bleeding” – an acronym that stands for Alert, Bleeding and Compression.

In any type of emergency, the first step is to ensure one’s own safety. Once that is accomplished, Amiri said, the next step would be to alert emergency personnel, whether directly by calling 9-1-1 or by asking someone nearby to contact authorities.

The next step is to identify the bleeding. That includes finding where the wound is and determining its severity.

Amiri gave participants tips on how to determine what is considered “life-threatening” or most severe. For instance, wounds to the body’s extremities (arms and legs) can be more easily treated at the scene compared to wounds to the torso or areas of the body where pressure cannot be applied successfully. Therefore, those with wounds to their chest or lower torso are the first ones to be transported to the hospital.

The final step is to compress the wound to stop bleeding. That can be done in a variety of ways, depending on where the wound is. For arms and legs, tourniquets can be applied. Direct pressure to the wound can also help with blood clotting. If the blood continues to pool or pump out, material like cloth or gauze can be packed into the wound to stop the flow.

Yuba County holds various trainings

and different scenarios to help prepare employees for the unknown. So, when Amiri and the trauma team from Rideout approached the county last year about holding the free “Stop the Bleed” classes, it was a no brainer, said Russ Brown, public information officer for Yuba County.

“There is certainly an awareness throughout the Government Center that something similar to the types of incidents we’ve seen happening around the nation could happen here; we are keenly aware of that,” Brown said. “We have plans and procedures in place to have things like safe rooms in the event of an emergency, but this took our training a step further.”

But the techniques and information provided to county employees doesn’t just apply to mass emergency situations, Brown said. It can also be applied in everyday home injuries involving a deep cut, or when someone is the first to come across a serious vehicle accident.

“This has the added benefit of being practical outside of a horrific emergency. If someone is injured, this information can help keep them alive, so it makes sense to have that extra level of training,” he said.

The Rideout Trauma team has held classes for several entities throughout the Yuba-sutter area, including Wheatland Union High School, Yuba Community College and Lindhurst High School ROP students, in addition to their own staff members at the hospital.

“We do these classes for free. It’s a community outreach program, so it’s just a matter of calling us and setting up a date to do it,” said Jennifer Crawford, trauma program manager for Rideout.

Anyone interested in holding a “Stop the Bleed” class is encouraged to contact Crawford at 749-4524.

More information about the campaign or tips on how to stop someone from bleeding can be found at www. bleedingcontrol.org.

Jonathan Kinsman fell in love with creating poetry in high school. He met his wife as a result of his words.

He wants others to feel that love of the art form.

Kinsman, the Yubasutter poet laureate, is inviting residents to share their best original poems – dealing with self-identity and diversity – as part of National Poetry Month (April).

Yuba Sutter Arts – for which Kinsman is a board member – will be hosting events with poetry readings throughout the month.

“I fell into a pond of words in my teenage years. The mud of it permeated my skin. I was in a local band (in Southern California) and there was no better outlet for angst and ennui and desire and awe than writing a 12 bar progression Love Anthem in the style of Muddy Waters. Bob Dylan. Ray Davies. Paul Simon. Don Mclean. Carol King. Jim Morrison. Eddie Holland,” Kinsman wrote in an email. “These musicians also wrote poetry and to a young teenager it was the perfect sturm und drang (storm and drive).”

That passion for poetry drove him to explore other disciplines of writing.

“I met my wife in high school and it was my (juvenile) poems that impressed her. It certainly wasn’t my singing or guitar playing,” he said. “Memorization of poetry helped through college and I was awarded a Brouse Foundation

scholarship that gave me a full ride to the University of California, at Riverside. My love of words (I read dictionaries: mea culpa) led me to theater and playwriting.”

As part of National Poetry Month, Yuba Sutter Arts will present three opportunities for local poets and writers of all ages to share their work and Kinsman hopes participants are bitten by the poetry bug as a result.

“The joy of the music and meaning of words. The humor and insight that our fellow citizens share in that most ancient of acts: the communal poetry reading,” he said. “And those who need to connect to other poets for help in publishing and writing in the craft will have their needs met.”

There will be two “Stand As 1” open mic events in the Yuba Sutter Arts’ continuing series of spoken word and poetry readings.

On April 5, the event will be at the Burrows Theater at Yuba Sutter Arts in Marysville and on April 19 at Justin’s Kitchen in Yuba City.

The grand finale for National Poetry Month will be a celebration of poetry on the theme of “What

Makes You…you.”

The event will be Thursday, April 26, at the Burrows Theater at Yuba Sutter Arts, 630 E St., Marysville. All events are free and open to the public.

“Poetry is so common that it is overlooked as an essential part of our humanity and gift of language,” Kinsman said. “When we write and recite a poem, we are continuing a tradition in mankind’s culture that predates written history, written music and theater.”

In 1996, the Academy of American Poets created National Poetry Month and it has become the largest literary celebration in the world with schools, publishers, libraries, booksellers and poets, according to the Academy of American Poets website.

“The Academy of American Poets in their collective, metaphoric wisdom chose the month of April to push poetry back into its proper place as First among the Arts,” Kinsman said.

“This public acknowledgement of poetry’s importance in our culture and lives should be appreciated by those forlorn souls who want more than one day to celebrate love.”