Bleed control kit installed outside Middleton Shopping Centre

The bleed control box has been installed in Middleton Gardens

An emergency bleed-control kit designed to prevent stab-related deaths has been installed in Middleton Gardens (Thursday 1 September).

Bleed control kits have been designed by the Daniel Baird Foundation and Prometheus Medical to help prevent catastrophic bleeding leading to a fatality.

The 24/7 access key coded kit – which includes pressure dressings, gauze bandages and tourniquets – is the first to be installed in the Rochdale borough, and has been installed next to Mark Warren Estate Agents, close to where a security guard at the shopping centre was stabbed last year.
 

Read more: Man stabbed at Middleton Shopping Centre in 'attempted murder'Published: 16 August 2021

In order to help increase chances of survival following significant blood loss, the kits are designed to prevent stab-related deaths in the same way public defibrillators have been credited with a drop in heart attack deaths.

Much like a defibrillator, the kits are registered with the emergency services and access provided via a 999 operator. None of the medical devices in the emergency bleed control kit require training to use and the 999 operator will be able to talk the user through the process.

Instructions are also included inside the cabinet.

The Daniel Baird Foundation was launched by Lynne Baird, who lost son Daniel, 26, in 2017 when he bled to death outside a pub in Birmingham after being stabbed trying to break up a fight.

Despite being available in the US, with such kits being distributed to schools and venues in every state, Lynne found nothing similar existed in the UK. The foundation now aims to install bleed control kits in as many places as possible.

Councillor Bernard Wynne, of the Middleton Independents Party, has been contacted for comment.