Jimmy A. is a Kentucky man who was at the Blue Grass Airport near Lexington with his wife Jessica and stepdaughter Taylor on July 13, 2025.
Jessica and Taylor are both registered nurses.
The family was about to board a flight for a trip.
That is when they noticed a Kentucky State Trooper lying in a grassy field near the airport, bleeding heavily from a gunshot wound to his leg.
Trooper Jude had been ambushed during a routine roadside encounter just moments earlier.
A passenger in a truck he had pulled over opened fire, shooting him in the leg before speeding away.
Body camera footage showed the trooper crawling to safety, leaving a trail of blood behind him.
Jessica said the grass was completely covered in blood.
She knew right away they had to move.
But they had no trauma kit, no gauze, and no tourniquet.
Jimmy pulled the belt from his own waist and wrapped it around the trooper’s leg as a makeshift tourniquet.
Taylor applied firm pressure to the wound while Jessica monitored his pulse and kept talking to him to prevent him from losing consciousness.
“Stay with me. Look at me. Tell me who you are.” she repeated, knowing that keeping a trauma patient alert helps prevent shock.
Minutes later, an airport officer arrived with a proper tourniquet and reinforced their work.
The family stayed with the trooper until paramedics arrived.
Thankfully, the Trooper survived.
Kentucky State Police awarded Jimmy, Jessica, Taylor, and Adam the Citation for Meritorious Achievement, the highest honor the agency can give a non-trooper.
The Kentucky Governor also named them Kentucky Colonels for distinguished service.
A belt and basic first-aid knowledge kept a man alive when professional help was still minutes away.
This is what you need to know about lifesaving first aid skills that every American should have.
What are the core skills that matter most?
Trauma experts agree that the majority of preventable deaths from injuries happen because of uncontrolled bleeding.
In the United States, roughly 40,000 people die each year from traumatic blood loss.
Many of those deaths could have been prevented if a bystander knew what to do.
EMS response times average 7 to 14 minutes in urban areas and can be much longer in rural locations.
A person can bleed out from a major wound in as little as 3 to 5 minutes.
That gap is where your knowledge fills in.
These are the key skills and their benefits you should know.
Direct pressure:
For 95 percent of wounds, you are likely to encounter, firm direct pressure at the site of bleeding for 10 to 15 minutes will cause the bleeding to slow or cease.
Your body is designed to patch damaged vessels. Platelets rush to the injury site and form a clot.
Pressure helps by compressing the vessel wall and slowing the flow while your body does its work.
You do not need fancy gear for this.
A clean cloth, a shirt, or even your bare hands pressed firmly against the wound can be enough.
The pressure needs to be focused and precise, directly on the spot where blood is coming from.
Tourniquet application:
When direct pressure is not enough — particularly for wounds on arms or legs — a tourniquet becomes the most powerful tool available.
A properly applied tourniquet shuts down arterial blood flow to the injured limb, which buys critical time until advanced care arrives.
The CAT (Combat Application Tourniquet) is the most widely used and trusted device.
Place it 2 to 3 inches above the wound on the limb, or “high and tight” on the upper portion of the limb if you cannot identify the exact source of bleeding.
Tighten the windlass until bright red bleeding has stopped completely.
It will be painful for the patient, but it is necessary to preserve their well-being.
A properly applied tourniquet can stay in place for several hours with a high likelihood of limb preservation.
It should be removed by trained professionals in a clinical setting.
Wound packing:
For deep wounds in areas where a tourniquet cannot be applied — such as the groin, armpit, or neck — wound packing is the technique you need.
Fill the wound cavity completely with gauze, pushing it in tightly.
This creates pressure from the inside out, directly on the damaged vessel.
If you have hemostatic gauze (gauze treated with a clotting agent), it works even more effectively, but regular gauze packed firmly will do the job.
After packing, apply firm pressure on top of the packed wound and hold.
Drawbacks to civilian trauma training:
Perishable skill:
Tourniquet application and wound packing are physical skills that degrade if you do not practice.
Training them once is not enough.
You need to rehearse these techniques every few months to maintain competency.
The goal is to apply a tourniquet in under 30 seconds, which requires repetition.
Fear of doing harm:
Many bystanders hesitate because they worry about making things worse.
The reality is that in a severe bleeding situation, doing nothing is far more dangerous than applying imperfect pressure or a tourniquet that is slightly out of position.
A tourniquet that is too loose can be tightened.
A patient who has bled out cannot be brought back.
Gear dependency:
While a belt or a ripped shirt can work as an improvised tourniquet, commercial tourniquets are far more effective and reliable.
If you do not carry one, your options in the moment become significantly more difficult.
This is why more and more prepared Americans are adding a tourniquet to their everyday carry, their vehicle kit, and their go-bag.
You do not need to be a paramedic or a combat medic to keep someone alive.
You just need to know three things: press hard, pack deep, and tighten until the bleeding stops.
Be sure you have a trauma kit with a tourniquet, hemostatic gauze, and compression bandages in your go-bag, and staged in your house or car.
