Town gets first life-saving bleed kits

Emergency first aid kits that could save the lives of knife attack victims have been installed across a Greater Manchester town to combat the "tragic reality" of knife crime.

The so-called bleed kits have been placed around Rochdale as part of a community safety push by the area's council.

Each has been donated from the #kNOwKnifeCrime campaign co-founded by Laura Hughes, the sister of Colin McGinty, who was stabbed to death aged 21 in Merseyside in 2001 in a case of mistaken identity.

She said the kits "send the right message" and would help create "a much safer environment".

She said: "When Colin died, knife crime just didn't exist in our world, but fast forward twenty years and knife crime is very much is a thing."

The kits have been installed outside Rochdale Police Station, with plans to install more of them at stations in Middleton and Heywood.

Each is stored in secure cabinets outside buildings, to provide immediate treatment for severe bleeding not just following a knife attack, but in the event of other traumatic incidents to prevent significant blood loss.

Kits contain dressings, an emergency tourniquet, a foil blanket, and gloves.

A council spokesman said that on average, it takes an ambulance 17 minutes to reach a patient, but bleeding from serious injuries, such as stabbings, can prove to be fatal in as little as three minutes.

The use of these kits can help slow down blood loss until an ambulance arrives, said Councillor Daalat Ali, joint deputy leader of Rochdale Council

He said the kits were needed as "incidents involving knives are sadly a worrying and tragic reality".

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