The Importance of Tourniquet Training

When Emery fractured her leg, the biggest threat to her life was blood loss. That’s the case for the majority of major trauma victims, according to Brad Maddy, a physician assistant who has worked in Cook Children’s Pediatric Surgery and Trauma department since 2023. 

Between 30 and 40% of deaths from traumatic accidents are due to hemorrhage, or blood loss, Maddy explained. Trauma victims can die from blood loss in three to five minutes, before medical professionals have time to treat them. When someone is bleeding out, every minute counts. 

One of the easiest ways to lower the risk of someone bleeding to death is through applying a tourniquet, a device that wraps tightly around a limb to slow or stop bleeding from an injury. This is the device that firefighter Hanetho applied to Emery’s leg. According to Cook Children’s doctors who treated Emery, doing so likely saved the girl’s life. 

Stories like Emery’s are why Maddy’s goal is for everyone to know how to use a tourniquet. 

From 2002 to 2007, Maddy was a field medic in the army. For almost the entire five years, he taught soldiers how to apply their own tourniquets through a program called Combat LifeSaver. That program later morphed into Stop the Bleed, a Department of Defense-backed initiative that aims to teach bystanders how to treat traumatic injuries involving severe bleeding until first responders arrive. 

“You can train the entire medical staff on treatment of post-traumatic hemorrhage, but that doesn’t help 30 to 40% of your patients,” Maddy said. “Stop the Bleed gives us the chance to put the tools and training in the hands of bystanders who are right there; a parent, a sibling, whoever. Somebody who can actually make a difference before the trained professional arrive.” 

The Stop the Bleed initiative at Cook Children’s started in 2019; Manager of Injury Prevention Sharon Evans has been providing the course to Cook Children’s employees on a quarterly basis since 2019 in conjunction with the Active Criminal Event course. However, trainings tapered off during the COVID pandemic. Maddy led the training initiative in March of 2025 with support from Evans and the Injury Prevention Team. 

In February 2025, Maddy began targeting Cook Children’s Medical Center employees to take the Stop the Bleed class. From February 2025 to January 2026 Maddy and team have led 36 training sessions for more than 400 employees. Alongside co-sponsors Fort Worth Fire Fighter Charities and the Fort Worth Fire Department, members of Cook Children's Trauma Department provide Stop the Bleed Classes to Cook Children’s employees and any other community members interested in knowing how to prevent deaths from uncontrolled bleeding. As of January, there have been at least five sessions in the community with plans to expand opportunities in 2026. 

On Sept. 10, Maddy led one such training for 13 people in a conference room at Cook Children’s Medical Center - Fort Worth. He opens with a PowerPoint presentation and clicks through pictures: a car, a bike, a broken window, a saw, a propeller -- everyday objects that can become deadly in the right circumstances. 

Over the hour-long course, Maddy walks us through what to do in an emergency situation if someone - including ourselves - is bleeding profusely. We learn how to apply pressure to wounds and what materials to use to do so -- something absorbent but not bulky, like a bundle of gauze, a handkerchief or strip of clothing, not a towel or blanket. On a flesh-colored cylinder riddled with gashes and fake wounds, Maddy demonstrates how to pack a wound, how much pressure to put on it and, lastly, how to put on a tourniquet. 

The process is straightforward, intuitive and simple. I had never even held a tourniquet before the training, but by the end of the hour, I could confidently do so in about a minute. 

Full Circle: A Heroic Reunion and a New Mission to Help Others

After three weeks, Emery was able to leave the hospital. The threat of losing her leg had not completely passed, but within a few months, her recovery took a turn for the better. By September, she was able to go swimming. And during an interview in August 2025, the soon-to-be freshman said her physical therapist told her she might be able to play soccer again within a few months. 

“Thankfully, all the wonderful people here at this hospital made it happen,” Brown said. “I’m very thankful she was taken here.” 

The firefighters who helped save Emery’s life were relieved to hear she had recovered so well. 

“Makes you feel pretty good, that we were able to make it to where she doesn’t have any debilitating injuries in the future and she’ll be able to get back out there and be a normal kid again,” Hanetho said. “I think everybody has that sense of wanting to do good for the community. I watched my father do it for many years so I just enjoy helping people.” 

On Nov. 20, Emery and her mom formally met the firefighters who saved Emery’s life. Cook Children’s presented the firefighters with Certificates of Recognition for outstanding care of a pediatric trauma patient. 

It wasn’t until Emery was about to leave the hospital that she and her mother learned about the Stop the Bleed program, and how it teaches everyday people to save lives the way Emery’s had been saved. 

The trauma provider who was working when Emery arrived at the hospital told them he had immediately recognized the tourniquet on her leg; it was the same kind of tourniquet the Stop the Bleed program distributes to local fire stations and schools. Emery and her mom immediately decided to take the training. 

“I didn’t know something that simple could save somebody’s life,” Emery said about the tourniquet. 

Brown encouraged everyone to take the training. She said you never know when you might witness a car crash, face a loved one getting injured or be hurt yourself. 

Emery’s experience at Cook Children’s also solidified her dream of becoming a nurse. She hopes to volunteer at Cook Children’s and eventually help other kids the way Cook Children’s staff helped her. 

“It seems cool to help people,” she said. 

Emery’s case is just one of many where a tourniquet meant the difference between life and death. 

For Maddy, Stop the Bleed is a way to not only serve kids at Cook Children’s, but to potentially help children in the entire community. Cook Children's promise, he said, is not limited to the children within the hospital walls, and Stop the Bleed is one way to fulfill that promise for all children in our community. 

If you’re interested in taking the Stop the Bleed training, you can email bradley.maddy@cookchildrens.org or jay.pearson@cookchildrens.org for the next available dates or visit www.stopthebleed.org for area course schedules.