Upstate nurses push 'Jacob Kits' and school safety measures at SC Statehouse

COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) - Among those hundreds of bills dead for the year that will not become law are several school safety measures.

That includes the idea to get tourniquet kits known as "Jacob Kits" inside of South Carolina classrooms. But that's not stopping a band of nurses from working on their own to get their 'Bleeding Control Kits' in schools.

Nurses from Spartanburg were here teaching children how to save their classmates' lives in case of attack. During these lessons, nurses are teaching students that tourniquets are the answer to saving lives here. In order to prevent deadly blood loss, they want these kits inside of every classroom in the state.

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"Too many people are dying of blood loss. Roughly 40 percent of trauma patients die from exsanguination, which is a fancy word for blood loss. That's way too many," said TJ Mack, an RN and Trauma Educator at Spartanburg Regional Hospital.

It's a number that's thought of after tragedies at schools across the country and in Townville, SC, where elementary student Jacob Hall died from an active shooter's attack.

It's caused firefighters in other parts of the state to name the tourniquet kits in his honor. These "Stop the Bleeding" kits are similar. They're going out to schools as we speak because of Spartanburg Regional's grant of $1.2 million.

"You know, there are some things that you just can't prevent. But if you don't have these tools, you're doing a disservice, right," Mack said. "There are a lot of people who could have benefited from this in the past."

Even with the grant money, it doesn't cover a kit for every classroom. That's where a bill would help. While it doesn't have a chance of passing this year, the nurses are hopeful it can come back in the future.

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