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Revised article: ambulances to carry blood products after contract approval
Summary
Revised to clarify the speaker is an unnamed agency official, to flag that the 40% survival figure was asserted without a cited source, and to note the contract approval had no procedural details in the transcript.
An agency official said the emergency medical service has approved a contract to begin carrying blood products on ground ambulances and expects to start deliveries after training and regulatory steps are complete.
The official said Shepherd Community Blood Center contacted the service and Gold Cross EMS to offer supplying blood products for pre-hospital use. “The leading cause of death in [the] pre-hospital environment in trauma is uncontrolled bleeding,” the official said. The official added, without citing a source, that “about 40% of the people in the past who have died from uncontrolled bleeding … likely could have been saved had we had a better treatment modality.” The transcript does not provide a study or data source for that estimate.
The speaker described three product types—whole blood, plasma and red blood cells—calling whole blood “the gold standard” because it replaces volume, provides oxygen-carrying capacity and supplies clotting factors. The official said the service will likely carry plasma and red blood cells rather than whole blood.
The official said the contract has been approved and outlined next steps: paramedic training on blood-product use and approval of an application required for field use. “Once we get the training and that application approved, which should be 3 or 4 weeks from now, we’ll be ready to start delivering blood,” the official said. The remarks did not include who approved the contract, a motion or vote tally, nor which regulatory body must sign the application.
The official described the change as a major step to extend hospital-level resuscitation into the field and predicted the practice may become standard on ground ambulances within three to five years. Reporters and readers seeking to verify the survival estimate or learn the procedural details of the contract approval should request the contract text, any supporting clinical studies cited by the service and documentation of the application and approval process.
