Port to carry lifesaving blood on ambulances

The Port Washington ambulance service is working to establish a program allowing it to carry blood on calls, but until then the department is hoping to partner with the Ozaukee Central Fire Department, which has been carrying blood in its ambulances since April.

The Police and Fire Commission on Monday gave its nod of approval, recommending the city amend its mutual aid agreement so that the city’s ambulance could call on the Ozaukee Central Department for blood.

The measure must still be approved by the city’s General Government and Finance Committee and the Common Council.

“Our departments are pretty good at working together seamlessly,” Fire Chief Joe DeBoer said in an interview Tuesday, adding he hopes the mutual aid program will begin in the next month.

“It’s a great resource. We’re excited someone around us has a program going that’s near enough we can take part in it.”

DeBoer told the commission that the department has been working with Ascension Health Care for some time to establish a blood program for the ambulance, but it isn’t ready yet.

“They’re on board,” DeBoer said. “It’s details now. Complicated things like this take time.”

Those include obtaining the needed equipment and training department members on how to administer the blood, he said.

Blood programs like this are relatively rare, DeBoer said, noting there are fewer than 400 in the country.

Preliminary plans for a Port program call for two units of packed red blood cells to be carried in the department’s intercept vehicle, which typically responds to all ambulance calls, DeBoer said.

Blood not used would be returned to the blood bank for new supplies every one to two weeks so it can be used before it expires, he said.

“It’s not getting wasted,” DeBoer said. “It’s a precious commodity.”

Commission member Sarah Burdette, a nurse, noted that the process of administering blood isn’t always quick.

“Is it not just faster to transfer them (patients) to the emergency room?” she asked.

Patients most likely to receive the blood are those experiencing severe hemorrhagic trauma, postpartum hemorrhaging and significant gastrointestinal bleeding, DeBoer said, adding that in these cases every minute counts.

When Ozaukee Central Fire Department rolled out its program, Steven Zils, a physician at Aurora Medical Center and the department’s medical director, 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.”

DeBoer noted that the Ozaukee Central Department carries packed red blood cells, minimizing the risk of complications to patients.

The type of blood product to be carried by the Port department in its program has yet to be determined, he said.

DeBoer said he hopes to get the Port program up and running by the end of the year, adding that the cost to start the program is expected to be between $10,000 and $15,000.