![\"Hillsborough](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Blood_drone.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nHILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 Hillsborough County Fire Rescue is preparing to demonstrate a first-of-its-kind system designed to deliver whole blood to critically injured patients before they arrive at the hospital.<\/p>\n
The blood would be delivered by drone, potentially cutting valuable minutes off the time it takes to begin a transfusion for patients experiencing life-threatening blood loss.<\/p>\n
The drones are being provided by Archer First Response Systems. Initially, the program will operate out of two fire stations in Sabal Park and Riverview.<\/p>\n
When paramedics determine a patient needs whole blood, they can request a unit and have temperature-controlled blood flown directly to the scene. Officials said the drones can deliver blood in about three and a half minutes or less.<\/p>\n
Hillsborough County Fire Rescue Division Chief Todd Carnell said the department covers roughly 900 square miles, including heavily traveled urban areas where traffic can slow emergency response.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe drone can get anywhere in about three and a half to four minutes,\u201d Carnell said. \u201cSo the crews on scene treating the patient, the blood arrives. There\u2019s some medication that we give that goes along with the blood. They can already have that started. They can have their IVs in place, grab the blood and start heading to the hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blood drone delivery is expected to begin in Hillsborough County in October.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Hillsborough Fire Rescue, Tampa General Hospital and Archer First Response Systems to launch first Blood Drone Delivery Program in US. (Courtesy: Archer)<\/p>\n
The pilot program will operate for one year and include two 35-square-mile service areas centered around the two participating fire stations. First responders and Tampa General Hospital hope to expand the program to additional fire stations in future years.<\/p>\n
Archer First Response Systems said it eventually wants to bring blood delivery drones to communities across the country. Officials said the drones could make a difference in emergencies involving major blood loss, including car crashes, shootings, stabbings and other traumatic injuries.<\/p>\n
Tampa General Hospital officials also said the program could improve outcomes for patients suffering postpartum hemorrhages.<\/p>\n
Dr. Jason Wilson, Tampa General Hospital\u2019s chief of emergency medicine, said the program is the first of its kind in the United States and could change the way emergency crews respond to severe bleeding.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis could be a total game changer across the board,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cThis could save patients\u2019 lives, not only here in the Hillsborough County area, but really could change the way we do pre-hospital blood delivery, or think about hemorrhage and bleeding control across the country, potentially across the world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 Hillsborough County Fire Rescue is preparing to demonstrate a first-of-its-kind system designed to deliver…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[3948,2031,274,558,28,571,6075,2635,115,139,135,137,136,1576,278,835],"class_list":["post-412694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-app-health","tag-app-local-business","tag-app-top-stories","tag-business","tag-florida","tag-health","tag-health-and-medicine","tag-jason-lanning","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-technology","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}