"If it can help even one person": Bleed control kit introduced at Pudsey Bus Station in latest attempt to battle rising knife crime

The kit houses everything you need to help a member of the public suffering from a catastrophic bleed.

It comes following work done by the Daniel Baird Foundation, set up by the family and friends of Daniel Baird, who at 26 was fatally stabbed following a night out in Birmingham in July 2017.

Pudsey Bus Station is the first in West Yorkshire to introduce the kit with the Combined Authority meeting in January to discuss rolling them out across the city region.

Speaking to YEP, Paul Hawkesworth who donated and installed the kit explained the importance of it.

"If it can help even one person get back to their loved ones then it will be worth it and I would do it again all day long." he said.

Similar to the now widely rolled out portable defibrillators, the bleed kit contains all the instructions needed to use the contents with 999 operators trained to talk you through it.

"You phone 999, the operator guides you through whether it be a stabbing or a chest wound or a catastrophic bleed." Paul explained "All the instructions are on each individual item explaining where you put the tourniquet on etc."

"If you are squeamish with blood then you have to really get over that, dig deep and help the patient."

Knife crime has been a problem on the rise in recent times with police recorded crime involving a knife or sharp instrument, for the year ending March 2021, at 41,000 across England and Wales.

This number is a significant 27 per cent higher than figures a decade ago 2010/11.

"The kits are massively important." Paul said "Knife crime everywhere is on the rise but of course it doesn't have to be knife crime related as it could be a catastrophic bleed where the person has severed their main nerve."

Next up for Paul, he is working with Leeds railway station in the hope of getting a kit installed in the new year.

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