Three days after Ross/West View Emergency Medical Services launched a pre-hospital blood program, it was used to save the life of a Ross man who was bleeding from his gastrointestinal tract.
The man’s systolic blood pressure, the top number, was down to 66, which is extremely low, and he was unresponsive, said Dr. Phil Nawrocki, medical director of Ross/West View EMS and interim system EMS medical director for Allegheny Health Network.
After being given blood, the man’s blood pressure improved and he was awake and talking when he arrived at a hospital.
“That was a case where it may have been the difference between life and death,” Nawrocki said. “The patient had significant clinical improvement by the time they arrived at the hospital. Without blood, that patient may have had a bad outcome.”
The pre-hospital blood program is the result of more than two years of collaborative planning, training and system development involving Ross/West View EMS, AHN Allegheny General Hospital, EMS West, Ross/West View EMS staff and medical command physicians.
While Ross/West View EMS serves Ross, West View, Millvale, Reserve and Ohio Township, it is the regional EMS service carrying blood for the broader North Hills area, Nawrocki said. It joins Baldwin EMS for the south and Pittsburgh for the center of the county.
All Ross/West View EMS paramedics have been educated and trained to administer blood, Nawrocki said.
Its supervisor vehicles have blood transport coolers that can keep blood products at a safe temperature for up to 24 hours. They carry two units of type O negative red blood cells.
They will respond to high-acuity calls — situations where a patient’s condition is severe, unstable or life-threatening — or when specifically requested for a patient who may need blood.
“When patients are either seriously injured or have a medical condition where they lose a lot of blood, the mainstay for treatment is to replace the blood that they’re losing,” Nawrocki said. “When that happens in the hospital, they’ll receive transfusions. What this program is, is we’re taking that treatment into the pre-hospital setting so patients are receiving life-saving treatment earlier in the course of their illness in order to save lives and improve outcomes.”
The risks of getting a blood transfusion outside a hospital are no greater than inside, Nawrocki said.
“There is a very, very small risk of a transfusion reaction,” he said. “But the benefits of a critically ill or injured patient receiving blood greatly outweighs the small degree of risk.”
It’s something that Steve Kline, interim director of Ross/West View EMS and a 30-year veteran, didn’t think would be an option for them. Having it added to the scope of practice for paramedics in Pennsylvania and to the statewide protocols, and having the education and training protocols, made it a reality.
And using pre-hospital blood so quickly to save a life was exciting, he said.
“To have that kind of an effect on a patient, that’s the goal of the program — to be able to get the patients what they need, when they need it, where they need it,” Kline said.
Ross/West View EMS gets blood from the blood bank at Allegheny General Hospital. While blood is good for 30 days, blood that is not used is returned to the hospital seven days before it expires to ensure it is not wasted, Nawrocki said.
As part of its commitment to the program and to help supply the region with blood, Ross/West View EMS is hosting blood drives at its station, 5325 Perrysville Ave. in Ross. The next one will be from 1:30 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 27.
Kline said they plan to have blood drives once per quarter and more often if there is interest.