Plano Fire-Rescue paramedics can now start a blood transfusion before a patient ever reaches the emergency room.
The department began carrying whole blood on Sept. 1 through a partnership with Medical City Plano, Plano Magazine reported Tuesday, citing a Plano Fire-Rescue news release. The blood rides on Squad 1, a specialized unit the department sends to its most serious medical calls anywhere in the city.
Crews are equipped to store and transport the blood and give it to patients who are losing large amounts of it.
The first patient
According to the department, the first person to receive blood under the program was an 81-year-old man with a gastrointestinal bleed. Giving him whole blood in the field kept him from going into cardiac arrest and bought hospital staff time to find and treat the source of the bleeding, the release said. He has since gone home from the hospital and fully recovered.
The department points to the stakes in severe bleeding cases: it says a patient's risk of dying climbs 15% for each minute spent in hemorrhagic shock, the life-threatening state caused by heavy blood loss.
"Everyone in Plano wakes up safer," Plano Fire-Rescue Medical Director Mark Gamber said of the launch, according to Plano Magazine.
