A lifesaver on wheels

The sooner a critically injured patient  — perhaps the victim of a car accident  —receives blood, the better their chances of survival.

That simple fact is spurring the Ozaukee Central Fire Department to begin carrying blood in two of its ambulances, one based in Grafton and the other in Saukville, starting on April 14 — a program so rare that only about seven emergency medical systems in the state have implemented it.

“This is so impactful, more than anything we might do,” Interim Fire Chief Matthew Karpinski said. “This is legitimate life saving. 

“We are beyond excited about it — excited to offer such a life-saving intervention. This is something that’s really cutting edge in the EMS world.”

Steven Zils, a physician at Aurora Medical Center and medical director for the Ozaukee Central Fire Department, said statistics show that for every minute patients with hemorrhagic shock or uncontrolled bleeding, go without blood, the chance of survival decreases 11%.

“If we can get blood to you five minutes faster, we can improve your chances of survival by 50%,” Zils said. “That’s quite a bit. That’s the big reason I think this is so important.”

The Fire Department will kick the program off on April 14 with a blood drive at the Grafton Fire Station from 1 to 7 p.m.

“We feel pretty strongly that’s important,” Karpinski said. “We want to do what we can to replenish the supply.

“It’s definitely a precious resource.”

The concept of administering blood to patients in need while on the way to the hospital is gaining traction in the EMS field because the outcomes are so significant, Karpinski said.

It came to the forefront for the Ozaukee Central Department last fall when paramedics responded to a call for a patient in a life-threatening situation, he said.

They would have administered blood to the patient if they had it, but instead called for a Flight for Life helicopter, which carries blood, to transport the woman, Karpinski said.

The woman survived, he said, “but if we would have had blood, the treatment path would have been faster.”

This wasn’t the only case where a patient would have benefited from receiving blood from paramedics on the ambulance, he said, but it provided the needed spark.

The department’s medical direction team put the wheels in motion, Karpinski said, “and it all came together.”

Crystal Theiler, Aurora’s transfusion service regional coordinator, got on board right away, he said.

“She was well-versed and excited about it,” he said, as was Zils.

The department received a $10,000 grant from the Aurora Foundation to pay for two specialized coolers to store the blood, Karpinski said. The coolers keep the blood between 36 and 43 degrees, monitoring the temperature continuously and sending out alerts to Karpinski and Zils if the temperature starts to climb, if the battery is low or the lid is off.

“That was the big expense,” he said.

The department’s medical direction team submitted a plan to the State of Wisconsin, which quickly reviewed and approved it. Department personnel began training for the program in January.

All the department’s emergency medical providers participated in the training, Karpinski said, although only the roughly 30 paramedics will be able to administer blood to patients.

“There are strict parameters a patient has to meet for us to use it,” he said.

The ambulances will carry type O positive and negative blood — the most universal types — Karpinski said.

“We definitely are not checking patients for their blood type,” he said. While there is a chance patients can react to type O blood, that’s “very rare,” he said, occurring in less than 1% of all cases. Paramedics will keep an eye out for any issues, and once at the hospital patients can be treated for it.

And given how tight blood supplies are, the ambulances will change out their blood supply weekly, Karpinski said. 

Red blood cells typically only last about three weeks, Zils said, so bringing the unused blood to the blood bank at Aurora Medical Center in Grafton weekly ensures it can be used for patients before it expires.

“Blood is such a precious resource that one of the big pushes with this program is to have no blood go to waste,” he said.

Karpinski said he believes the blood program will primarily benefit trauma patients, such as people in car crashes, as well as those with postpartum hemorrhaging and gastrointestinal bleeding.

“There’s nothing that fixes that (hemorrhagic shock) better than blood itself,” he said. 

He estimated the blood may only be used in a handful of cases each year. While some may question the investment, Karpinski said it’s well worth it.

“This is one of those things that for the four times we might use it, the impact is so great it’s more than worth it,” he said. “These patients are very sick patients when this happens.” 

If the ambulance needs more than the two units it has on hand, Zils said, paramedics can call for the second ambulance to respond with its supply. 

And, Karpinski noted, the department has offered to provide the blood service to other EMS services in the county. So far, the Southern Ozaukee, Fredonia and Belgium ambulances have signed on, he said.

“I can’t stress enough the positive impact this is going to have on our community and our county,” he said. “This represents a major advancement in the level of care we can provide. These minutes can make the difference between life and death for someone experiencing severe bleeding.”

To sign up to donate blood on April 14, visit https://tinyurl.com/ybnxxx26.