Missouri Couple Save Friend’s Life after Chainsaw Accident

When John Self learned about ACS Stop the Bleed courses in an online firearm forum, he decided to sign up for a class at North Kansas City Health Hospital. About a year later, he used this training to save his friend’s life after an accident with a chainsaw.

Self and his girlfriend, Jessica Elliott, stopped at their friend WC’s house on their way to a gun range. The house is in a rural part of Missouri about 20 minutes from any town. WC was elevated in a bucket truck trimming trees with a chainsaw when Self heard him scream.  

“I ran over and wasn’t really sure what the problem was,” Self said. “But he got the bucket on the ground and took his hand away, and I could see he’d gotten himself with the chainsaw.”

Self acted fast, applying his belt to WC’s arm as an improvised tourniquet. According to guidelines from the ACS Committee on Trauma, improvised tourniquets should only be used as a last resort when a windlass tourniquet is unavailable. Thankfully, Elliott remembered that there was a Combat Application Tourniquet (CAT) in their range bag. The CAT is a standard part of most bleeding control kits, along with gauze, trauma shears, gloves, and more. 

Training to React Under Pressure

The forum that inspired Self to take an ACS Stop the Bleed class also encouraged him to keep bleeding control equipment in his range bag, as participants routinely discussed wearing tourniquets on their belts the way one might carry a pocketknife or a flashlight.  

Self and Elliott drove their friend to the nearest hospital, where emergency room staff commended Self for applying the tourniquet correctly with the proper tension. WC had severed an artery in his wrist, but the doctors were able to repair it and save his hand.

As he reflected on the incident, Self recalled his time teaching people how to ride motorcycles, and his lessons about target fixation. A lot of times, riders will head toward something they’re trying to avoid because they’ve fixated on it. He speculated that if he hadn’t taken ACS Stop the Bleed training, he may have locked up and been unsure how to react, like a young motorcyclist facing an obstacle on the highway.

“Having been through the ACS Stop the Bleed class, it gave me something else to fixate on instead of just locking up,” he said. “Running up to him, I didn’t even have to think about it.” 

Helping Others Prepare for the Unexpected

Now, Self is encouraging everyone he knows to take a bleeding control class and have the proper equipment nearby for whenever emergencies occur. He’s even spoken to his supervisors at the sheet metal manufacturing facility where he works about having kits on site.

Elliott, who serves on the Pleasant Hill City Council in Missouri, has also worked to bring ACS Stop the Bleed training to her town. She presented a plan to her city administrator and police chief, who have reached out to local representatives to get a class scheduled for their community. After this incident, she has a renewed understanding of the unpredictability of emergencies.

“Obviously it’s not how we thought our day was going to go,” she said. “It changed in a literal instant. I’m very thankful that John had taken the class and that we had the tourniquet with us. It would have been very different had that not been the case.” 

Interested in learning about the American College of Surgeons Stop the Bleed program? Learn how to get trained, read more stories about Stop the Bleed in action, and purchase a bleeding control kit.