A San Antonio paramedic and an emergency department physician told jurors on Nov. 3 that rapid field care and an emergency whole-blood transfusion were critical to saving an officer shot in October 2023.

James Campbell, a City of San Antonio paramedic who said he was the lead medic on scene, described arriving to an “officer down” call and finding the officer with a through-and-through wrist wound and a major gunshot wound to the right leg. Campbell said the leg injury caused massive bleeding, that tourniquets were applied, and that the officer’s condition deteriorated quickly: an initial blood pressure reading of 85/51 and a pulse of 76 fell to a pulse of 34 within minutes.

“We called and so even before we left the scene, we called for whole blood,” Campbell said, describing a coordinated rendezvous on I‑35 where a downtown medic unit met the ambulance and provided whole blood. Campbell testified that after transfusion the officer’s vitals improved markedly — later readings showed blood pressure and pulse returning toward normal and an oxygen saturation that reached 100 percent.

Dr. Joshua Lowe, an attending physician at Brooke Army Medical Center, told the jury the officer arrived to BAMC in a critical, shock state with tourniquets in place and that operating-room findings showed a popliteal artery injury. Lowe testified the patient had received “most of a unit of whole blood” in the field and that the transfusion and resuscitation were necessary to get him stable enough for surgery.

“By the time he came to me, he was already back into stage 3 shock, and his heart rate was up because of the blood he received in the field,” Lowe said. He added that, had whole blood not been available in the field, the outcome would likely have been different.

Both witnesses explained why whole blood is not carried on every ambulance but said San Antonio’s program — which supplies low‑titer O positive whole blood to some units — played a decisive role in the patient’s recovery. Dr. Lowe described long‑term risks from the leg injury, including an increased lifetime risk of deep vein thrombosis and the possibility of chronic circulation problems depending on scarring and recovery.

The testimony was part of the state’s direct examination of medical and emergency personnel. No final medical prognosis for long‑term outcomes was asserted beyond what witnesses described about immediate stabilization and surgical intervention.

The trial will continue the next scheduled session; the court indicated additional witnesses will be called before closings are set.