West Valley firefighters can now give blood transfusions on scene

WEST VALLEY CITY — West Valley City firefighters are now prepared to give blood transfusions on scene. That has never been done by a Utah emergency ground crew.

"Every person in our department has gone through four hours of whole blood transfusion training," said Brandon Howard, the department's medical division battalion chief. "Blood saves lives. This is the golden standard for trauma treatment."

With the partnership of Intermountain Medical Center, West Valley City paramedics have been working to bring whole blood onto their responder engines since last December.

Crews studied at a three-day course in San Antonio, one of the few U.S. cities that offers a prehospital universal blood program.

"We've been pushing the frontiers of blood transfusion at Intermountain Medical Center for about 10 years," said David Morris, a trauma surgeon at Intermountain Medical Center. "We have whole blood in our hospitals and in our helicopters. Focusing on the ground crews is the next evolution. These are the teams who service our communities, that bring patients to us."

West Valley City firefighters will now carry one unit of type O whole blood with them on all supervisor vehicles. This advancement offers transfusion to trauma patients who are in deep shock and may not survive a transport to a hospital.

"Providing blood to patients very early after their injury more than doubles their chance of survival," said Dr. Peter Taillac, medical director for the West Valley City Fire Department. "The blood will be rotated every seven days so it stays fresh and is ready to use."

The traveling technology refrigerator keeps the lifesaving blood at a nearly frozen level for preservation. When an emergency arises, warming tubes immediately heat the blood to the perfect temperature and transfuse the universal blood through an IV system.

West Valley City is part of the less than 1% of agencies in the country offering transfusions at the scene of a traumatic accident.

"This really is cutting edge and revolutionary," Morris said. "We can't overstate how big of a game changer this is. We hope to roll this program out to all medical responders in the state."

Medical professionals said the biggest barrier to this program is a lack of blood donations. Paramedics encouraged all those who can donate blood to do so.

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