STOP THE BLEED® traces its origins to the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Newtown, CT, on December 2012. A few months after the indciident a concerned local trauma surgeon and Regent of the American College of Surgeons (ACS), Lenworth M. Jacobs, Jr., MD, FACS, requested to review victims’ autopsy records. Results showed that the victims died from severe injuries.

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This knowledge led trauma surgeons from the American College of Surgeons to form a group with other experts in the fields of emergency medical care, government, and law enforcement to discuss the matter. The group met several times and developed expert recommendations on how to improve the rate of survival for people with severe bleeding.