First Responders Rely on Bleeding Control to Save One of Their Own During Training Exercise
By Liam McCarthy
February 25, 2026
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Participants in a swift-water training exercise.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Noah Pressler was eager to take a swift-water rescue training class. Pressler, who’s been a firefighter for 7 years, wanted to learn how to save people caught in fast-moving water, like the floods and storm runoff that impacted his hometown of Cashiers in western North Carolina. However, on the last day of the class, a knife slipped out of his personal flotation device (PFD) and sliced his neck, requiring his instructors and classmates to step in with a different set of life-saving skills.
“It was a freak accident,” Pressler recalled. “We were running through drills. We were about to break for lunch.”
Ironically, Pressler was playing the role of victim in this exercise, floating down the river to be lifted into the rescue boat by his classmates. His PFD had a knife attached to a coiled plastic lanyard, and when the knife accidentally dislodged from the sheath, the current stretched the coil, causing the blade to snap back and cut his neck.
“It felt like a rope burn at first,” he said. Then he touched his neck and realized he was bleeding from a 6–7-inch wound that stretched from under his chin to behind his ear.
"Once I found a good place for my fingers, I didn't want to let go."
–Ethan Winkler
Stepping In with Life-Saving Training
One of Pressler’s instructors, Ethan Winkler, was positioned downstream from the exercise. He brought Pressler ashore and began the bleeding control techniques he’d mastered in his 17 years as a first responder.
“We fall back on that training,” Winkler said. “You notice life-threatening bleeding versus any other type of bleeding. It’s very easy to see.”
Winkler applied pressure to Pressler’s neck, the first step in addressing severe bleeding. While this slowed the bleeding, it didn’t stop. Someone in the class handed Winkler QuickClot® hemostatic gauze, and he started packing the wound to help clot the blood.
One of the Burke County EMS supervisors who responded to the call had blood on his truck and was able to give Pressler a unit of blood on the way to the hospital (Pre-hospital blood is still unavailable in most EMS systems across the United States, though a growing number are beginning to carry this lifesaving resource on their ambulances). Winkler rode in the ambulance and kept his fingers on Pressler’s neck until they arrived at the emergency room.
“Once I found a good place for my fingers, I didn’t want to let go,” Winkler said.
Pressler after his wound was stitched.
Helping Others Prepare for an Emergency
Since recovering from his accident, Pressler has a newfound passion for everyone—not just first responders—being trained to control bleeding in an emergency.
“You never know when it’s going to happen,” he said. “I could’ve very well been a kayaker or just a regular white-water rafter or fisherman out there on the river.” Pressler said that bleeding emergencies can happen anywhere, and that he always has an ACS Stop the Bleed kit with him now.
Winkler said that he also keeps a tourniquet and other bleeding control materials in his truck and has even given them to loved ones as gifts.
“I’m the weird one who gives family and friends stuff like that for Christmas,” he said. “It’s not something the average person thinks about because they’re not really in the mindset of a first responder. But if you don’t have it when you need it, you’re out of luck.”
However, both Pressler and Winkler stressed that simply having the materials isn’t enough.
“Don’t just get something like a tourniquet and not get any training on it,” Winkler said. “It’s not a magic solution. You still need to know how to use it, where to put it, and how to do it.”
This is something Pressler has emphasized as he’s taught bleeding control classes in his community.
“It’s not only important for people to know what to do and to get the training, but it’s also important to take the training seriously,” Pressler said. “When we get the wound packing arm out, take it seriously like it’s a real event, because it can save a life. It saved my life. Without Ethan jumping on the pressure right away, I feel certain it would’ve been significantly worse or I would’ve expired that day.”
Pressler said that his rescue squad bought everyone in his department an ACS Stop the Bleed kit after his accident. While his fellow first responders always knew bleeding control kits were important, they gained a renewed sense of appreciation after seeing them save one of their own.
“Everything that was done between my time on the side of the river and my time seeing the surgeon was a Stop the Bleed skill.” Pressler said. “Without all those very basic skills it could’ve been a completely different outcome.”
