THE City of Edinburgh Council will consider the introduction of “bleed kits” to help curb knife crime, following the urging of the mum of a man killed in an alleged stabbing.
Lisa Petrie is the mother of John McNab, 22, who was fatally injured on Great Junction Street in Leith in September.
Now, the 44-year-old has petitioned Edinburgh Council to introduce first aid kits designed specifically for stab wounds.
Bleed kits are specialized first aid kits for controlling catastrophic bleeding from severe injuries like stab wounds using tourniquets, gauze, trauma dressings, gloves, and shears.
The City of Edinburgh Council will consider the introduction of bleed kits in schools and it community centres, with just a handful available throughout Scotland (C) Neil Owen / Wikimedia Commons
There are reportedly only six of these kits publicly available in Scotland, compared to more than 3,000 in England.
A new motion submitted by Councillor Susan Rae of the Greens asks the council to consider the introduction of bleed kits in secondary schools and community buildings.
The motion notes a recent increase in knife crime in Edinburgh, particularly in the retail sector and among young people.
It therefore requests that council officers write a business bulletin outlining the potential costs of involved with providing all secondary schools and community centres with bleed kits.
The motion would also see the council write to the UK and Scottish Governments to explore steps which could make it more difficult to obtain knives.
Lisa has backed this motion and believes that wider distribution of these kits could save lives in Edinburgh and Scotland.
Giving a deputation to the council prior to their debate on the issue, she said: “In the early hours of the morning on Tuesday 2 September, my son was brutally murdered.
“My John was my world.”
She went on to describe how ease of access to bleed kits could have helped save her son’s life.
She wants to remember her son by ensuring that as many measures as possible are put in place to prevent something like John’s death from reoccurring.
Lisa described the simplicity of learning how to use a bleed kit: “I did a training course through the Millennium Centre, and they went through every scenario, whether it be a stab, or whether it be an impalement, or a serious accident.”
“It was £29 and it took two hours.”
Also raised were questions about how easy it is to buy knives in Edinburgh and potential mitigation measures which the governments in Holyrood and Westminster, as well as the council, could bring into force.
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