Air Ambulances Bring Life-Saving Blood On-Board
Written by HFM News on 7th February 2022
Air ambulances serving the Hfm region have begun carrying supplies of blood and plasma.
It means medical crews on board the helicopters can now provide emergency blood transfusions to patients at the scenes of serious incidents like road traffic collisions and stabbings.
Dr Jake Turner, Blood Bank Biomedical Scientist Mrs Chloe Wilkes, Captain John McCallion
The move is collaboration between the Air Ambulance Service, hospitals and volunteers from Leicestershire and Rutland Blood Bikes.
It also means blood can be carried on the charity’s critical care cars, which also respond to incidents where people are seriously injured.
Helicopters covering Leicestershire and Northamptonshire will be carrying packed O negative red blood cells (pRBC) which carry oxygen around the body, and Fresh Frozen Plasma (FFP) which contains clotting factors that help to make a blood clot and stop bleeding.
There will be a 24-hour rotation of blood products, and any blood and plasma that is not used by the air ambulance will be put back into the blood bank and can be administered to patients in hospital thereby avoiding any wastage.
Dr Caroline Leech, Deputy Clinical Lead for the Air Ambulance Service said: “For the bleeding patient, blood transfusion is one part of a package of critical care that is provided by our teams to bring advanced resuscitation earlier in the patient’s care before they arrive at hospital, giving them the best chance of survival.”
Director of Operations Richard Clayton said, “The introduction of prehospital blood transfusions is another positive development in The Air Ambulance Service’s absolute commitment to support the most critically ill and injured patients it has proudly served for nearly 19 years. I am extremely grateful to everyone that has been involved in the project.”
