There’s a group of around 20 people who, this fall, will spread out around St. Louis with more know-how in applying tourniquets, providing first aid, and taking action in the wake of immediate trauma. When the next storm comes, or when someone near them is hurt, the hope is they’ll be better equipped to act.
On a recent quiet Monday evening, they practice on foam cutouts—and each other—the basics of immediate first aid, like how to tie a tourniquet (always tightly).
Those people are in 314 Oasis’ Community First Responder Collective and are training under the trauma surgeon and community leader Dr. LJ Punch. It’s just one of the programs from 314 Oasis—an organization Punch co-founded in the wake of the May 16 tornado to respond to immediate needs. Now, a year and a half later, Punch says people impacted by the tornado have much greater needs than he’d anticipated. And they aren’t alone in needing help…