It’s become a hallmark of terror attacks and school shootings: the fateful minutes or hours when the wounded are hunkered down, waiting for the violence to play out and for help to arrive.
In Monday’s car-and-knife attack at Ohio State University, one of the 11 wounded victims hid in a campus building for nearly 90 minutes before police gave the all-clear and she could be treated. When a gunman opened fire at an Orlando, Florida, nightclub, in June, a woman sent a frantic text message to her mother saying she had been shot and couldn’t stop the bleeding. She later died.
Such incidents are the impetus behind a new federal initiative to train everyone at schools and other public places - custodians, security guards and administrators - on how to treat gunshots, gashes and other injuries until actual EMTs can get to the scene.
