The Gift of Life | Now Carried on the Ground

SPRING BRANCH, Texas - July 9, 2019 - PRLog -- Countless hours have been dedicated by so many in a collaborative effort among Bulverde Spring Branch Emergency Services, Southwest Texas Regional Advisory Council (STRAC), South Texas Blood and Tissue Center, and our own Centre team to bring the use of cold-stored low titer O+ whole blood (LTOWB) to our emergency service ambulance units. Bulverde Spring Branch Fire & EMS is now carrying whole blood for emergency transfusion in patients with severe hemorrhage. "This is a tremendous game changer in saving lives" says Craig Manifold, EMS Medical Director.

Trauma is the leading cause of death for ages forty-six and under in the U.S. — yet up to 20% of trauma deaths are potentially survivable.Approximately half of all trauma mortalities are a consequence of hemorrhage, and most of these patients die within six hours of injury. Pre-hospital hemorrhagic shock due to injury accounts for approximately 25,000 civilian deaths.Hemorrhagic shock is a clinical state in which severe blood loss causes insufficient cellular oxygen delivery, leading to organ failure and, ultimately, death. Every minute that a massive transfusion is delayed for patients who have lost half or more of their blood volume, mortality goes up by five percent.

Increasing numbers of EMS agencies are developing the capability to administer low titer O+ whole blood to trauma patients in need. In our area, San Antonio Fire Department EMS began carrying LTOWB on their ambulances in late 2018. Bexar County ESD #7, Karnes County EMS and Wilson County ESD #3 were also among the early agencies offering this capability. Bulverde Spring Branch Fire & EMS, as well as Comal County ESD #3 (Canyon Lake Fire/EMS), Bandera EMS, and Bexar County ESD #2 joined the ranks of emergency medical services organizations to carry LTOWB on their ambulances on July 1, 2019. Rescue helicopters in South Texas started carrying cold-stored whole blood for treating patients with major blood loss on their way to a hospital in January 2018.

Whole blood is the natural, unseparated blood collected from a donor. It contains all the components of blood that you'd find in healthy blood (red cells, plasma, clotting factors and platelets), because it is normal, healthy blood. Administration of blood to patients in hemorrhagic shock is associated with improved patient outcomes.The U.S. military has been successfully transfusing whole blood at the point of injury for severely wounded patients on the battlefield since World War I.

Stephen Rahm, Chief of Clinical Direction for the Centre, and Daniel Torres, Division Chief for Bulverde Spring Branch Emergency Services, were instrumental in this effort for our Bulverde Spring Branch community (pictured accepting our first unit of blood). "This capability will dramatically change trauma care for citizens in Western Comal County. It is also a shining example of how people and systems can come together to improve the delivery of emergency medicine where it matters most." Chief Rahm stated.

https://www.hiscentre.com