The Three Rivers Ambulance Authority is now carrying whole blood on its ambulances, in partnership with the American Red Cross.
The use of whole blood in this way is a first for northeast Indiana, according to officials with TRAA.
Dr. Jack Scott is the medical director for TRAA. He says that Type-O blood is universal and can be used by any blood type, and will be stored in special coolers to keep it usable.
It is also more helpful than the saline or other solutions used normally when a patient is bleeding heavily.
“What whole blood does is it provides the patient with sort of life saving reinfusion of what they're already losing,” Dr. Scott says.
It allows medics to treat acute blood loss patients with life-saving transfusions in the field. These could include gunshot victims, those injured in falls or traffic crashes, or in any situation where they are in danger of bleeding to death.
Blood is only usable for about 35 days, and Scott says that the blood will be rotated back through Lutheran Hospital if it is unused on the ambulances within that timeframe so that it does not go to waste.
TRAA officials say the survival rate for acute blood loss patients increased to nearly 92 percent in other cities with similar programs.
