Good News, Chicagoans…Now When You Get Shot There Are Local Bleed Stations

In a city like Chicago where a person is shot ever one hour and fifty-one minutes, first responders need all the help they can get to save lives and now that help will come in the form of “Bleeding Control Kits” that will be strategically positioned around the city. The bleeding kits will have supplies to treat gunshot victims, the city announced this month.

The 426 kits will be mounted in 269 buildings around the city and contain enough supplies to treat eight victims. “The box has eight tourniquets and also gauze, so it’s basically to stop the bleeding,” Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications Executive Director Rich Guidice told NBC Chicago.

The city doesn’t want you to think it’s just gunshot victims that can be saved at the bleed stations. Officials note that bleeding emergencies can result from “falls, penetrating injuries, gunshot wounds and more.”

Let’s cut to the chase — these kits are for gunshot victims.

“We’re living in different times. And we’re doing our best to adapt to the environment that we’re living in,” Guidice added.

According to HeyJackass, which tracks all things related to shootings in Chicago via local data portals, a total of 3,555 people have been shot this year in the city. 651 of those shootings have resulted in homicides. The city now experiences a murder ever 10 hours and four minutes.

Last weekend, eight people were shot and killed and a total of 59 were wounded across the city. On Wednesday, five people were wounded in a shootout in Chicago’s Fulton River District, just west of downtown. The shooting began just before 5 p.m. and involved at least two cars chasing each other and firing guns at each other.

“I looked in the rearview mirror and I could see these guys swerving and coming right at us and I’m like that’s it, We’re involved. We’re in the way now,” eyewitness Steven Niewiedzial told ABC 7.

“Next thing you know three cars are coming up on the side of us going on the opposite side of traffic, shooting,” Niewiedzial said. “They were shooting at the guy in the first car. They were shooting at him. He had bullet holes in his car and he has two flat tires and he was just going, you could see him scraping and going. And they were hanging out the windows and shooting.”

Yes, at 5 p.m.

In Chicago, you just never know when you’ll need help from a bleeding station kit.

This stuff is so common in Chicago that a shootout near downtown that left five people wounded and innocent people running for cover didn’t even lead this morning’s 6 a.m. news. ABC 7 made sure to get the weather report in before video of people running for cover.

You’ll have to wait until the 4:45 mark of the broadcast to learn about the shooting.