Positivity: Va. Tech Student Probably Saved His Own Life

With tourniquets, and I would suggest that the correct term is “almost definitely”:

Tourniquets saved the life of a Virginia Tech student whose photo was widely used across the nation yesterday and today.

The photo appeared on Page A5 of today’s Richmond Times-Dispatch print edition and on Page One of The TD’s Extra print edition yesterday about the massacre.

The student is Kevin Sterne, said his parents, Randy Sterne of Cumberland, Md., and Suzanne Grimes of Eighty Four, Pa.

Dr. David Stoeckle, chief of surgery at Montgomery Regional Hospital, said the student had a 3-centimeter gash in the femoral artery of his right leg: “He knew he was bleeding to death.”

The student, an Eagle Scout, wrapped a wire cord around his leg to staunch the bleeding, Dr. Stoeckle said. When emergency medical technicians arrived, they placed a tourniquet belt around the leg and saved his life, the physician said. The belt can be seen on the student’s leg in the photo.

“He was an incredible guy,” said Dr. Stoeckle, who declined to name the student because of privacy concerns, although the student was identified later by his parents.
Without the student’s own treatment and the technicians’ action, there’s a good chance he would have died, Dr. Stoeckle said.

The physician said the student is in stable condition and doing very well but added, “I think he’s going to be here a while.”

Kevin Sterne is a fifth-year senior who is set to graduate this year, his parents said. …..