New lifesaving technique now being used by EMS crews in Colorado's Clear Creek County
Getting an injured patient to a hospital as soon as possible is always a priority for medics, but in many rural Colorado mountain communities that trip can take longer than what's ideal.
"It is a pretty helpless feeling driving down (in the ambulance from the mountains)," said John Manasjan, captain of Clear Creek EMS.
Clear Creek County is one of those communities in the high country which has struggled with what ends up sometimes being long ambulance rides for patients.
"But the patient who is injured here in the middle of a bad snowstorm and is waiting 90 mins, 2 hours, 3 hours to get to an operating room? They are going to be pretty sick by the time they get (to the hospital)," said Dr. Scott Branney, Medical Director of Clear Creek County.
A new lifesaving technique is now being used in the county. Their EMS crews are able to give whole blood to patients in the back of ambulances. While that's a regular practice in flight for life helicopter medic setups, Clear Creek County is one of the few places in Colorado where ground-based emergency responders are trained for it.
Before this, saline was the best EMTs in Clear Creek County could give to a patient.
"When people bleed out, historically, the blood pressure drops and in the past we were just giving them normal saline," Manasjan said. "So now we are giving them whole blood. That blood has clotting factors and has the ability to carry oxygen, so it's very important. Huge, huge lifesaving."
There's a catch, though. The county needs the blood required for blood transfusions. So they need blood donors.
"If you bleed three units of blood and I can replace one of them, I'll undo all of the damage and keep you alive until you can make it to a surgeon," Branney said.
While all blood donation is important, type O is drastically important for all of those emergencies because it is a universal donor.
Studies have shown just how important blood can be for a patient who is bleeding out. Branney said having the option for medics can be a life and death difference.
"We can reduce the preventable mortality by 50%," Branney said.
While this system specifically uses universal donor blood for the ambulance transfusions, blood donations from people of all blood types always get used, and always have the potential to save a life. And the blood donated in the county always stays in the community.
