Mercy Health Youngstown shares gun safety tips after rise in trauma cases

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Mercy Health is sharing gun safety tips after a rise in trauma cases.

According to the release, Mercy Health Youngstown is seeing a rise in "penetrating trauma cases", both intentional and unintentional.

Since the start of 2022, they've seen the number of cases rise from four percent in January and February to 10 percent in June.

Shootings, stabbings and other punctures account for 10 percent of the trauma department's volume. They say the majority of those cases are gunshot wounds.

Mercy Health officials say 95% of all traumatic injuries that come through their emergency department are preventable.

They also say gun safety among children is important in trauma injury prevention.

“Statistics show that 4.6 million children live in homes with access to an unlocked or unsupervised gun and 75% of kids know where a gun is stored in their home. When it comes to firearm safety, there are simple steps gun owners can take that could make the difference in preventing an avoidable tragedy,” says Amanda Lencyk, trauma injury prevention and outreach coordinator at Mercy Health. “This includes unloading, locking and securely storing your firearm, as well as keeping your firearms and ammunition stored separately.”

Some additional safety tips are to have conversations with your kids about guns to help them understand their dangers.

Mercy Health says parents should also ask other parents if they have guns in their home before taking kids over for a play date.

It's also important to consider removing guns from your house if someone in the household is having a mental health crisis.

Even with safety steps in place, Mercy Health says knowing how to respond if you or someone you're with has a traumatic injury can help determine outcomes and recovery.

According to the release, uncontrollable bleeding is the number one cause of preventable deaths due to trauma. Mercy Health Youngstown offers courses for people to learn how to stop the bleed.

They say to follow the ABCs of bleeding:

• Alert - call 911
• Bleeding - find the bleeding injury
• Compress - apply pressure to the wound to decrease blood flow

To learn more about local courses on stopping the bleed, contact trauma services at 330-480-3907.