Emergency Responders Will Have Type O Blood On Hand To Help Save Trauma Patients

EMSA and Tulsa Fire Department supervisors will soon have a type of blood on hand that could help save trauma patients.

When emergency responders carry Type O Whole Blood, they can start administering it before the patient gets to the hospital.

"What we do or what we don't do, in those first several minutes after an injury, really impacts their survival," Dr. Nathan Powell with the St. Francis Trauma Institute said.

With EMSA and Tulsa Fire Department supervisors carrying Type O Whole blood, they can increase the chance of people surviving.

Type O Whole Blood is formulated to help people after traumas like car wrecks, shootings, or certain medical situations.

"For folks that are losing critical amounts of blood, being able to replace that blood prior to hospital arrival is absolutely lifesaving," said Dr. Jeffrey Goodloe, EMS System for Metropolitan Oklahoma City and Tulsa Chief Medical Officer.

Paramedics in Oklahoma City have been using Type O whole blood for more than a year and Dr. Goodloe says it's been successful.

EMS providers have given the blood to 58 patients after a trauma, with 34 of them eventually discharged from the hospital.

"When paramedics find these patients with very high heart rates and low blood pressure, we know they have already lost a critical amount of blood, either externally where we can see, or internally where we can't," Dr. Goodloe said.

While the blood is just the beginning of the patient's recovery, Dr. Goodloe says it buys time to get to the hospital and save the patient's life.

"Being able to literally add decades of life back to someone so that they can continue to be a husband, a wife, a mother, a father, it's so important," he said.

Our Blood Institute says it desperately needs people with O positive blood types to donate blood for this to be successful. They will begin carrying the blood on July 1st.