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Austin-Travis County EMS Cmdr. Tim Fuentes shows how the blood used in the service’s whole blood program is stored. Commanders carry blood in a military grade cooler for use in the field during trauma or medical blood loss cases.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sara Diggins\/American-Statesman<\/p>\n
Even before the March 1 fatal shooting on West Sixth Street<\/a>, Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services was working on a new way to get more whole blood to a mass casualty scene.\u00a0<\/p>\n In November, it started working through several scenarios of how EMS would coordinate with We Are Blood, the blood bank that serves 10 Central Texas counties and 50 hospitals, during a mass casualty.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Austin-Travis County EMS will be able to access more whole blood in a mass casualty event through a new protocol with We Are Blood, the blood bank for Central Texas.<\/p>\n Jay Janner\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve spent years building a system that can deliver whole blood in the field for individual patients,\u201d said EMS Chief Robert Luckritz. \u201cThis next step ensures that same level of care can be scaled quickly and effectively when multiple lives are on the line.\u201d<\/p>\n Austin-Travis County EMS has been a national leader in providing blood transfusions in the field since it began the whole blood program in 2021.<\/p>\n Every day, EMS carries between nine and 11 units of O-positive whole blood on its supervisors’ trucks, which it can get quickly to someone who needs a blood transfusion. O-positive blood can be given to anyone at the scene without having to know their blood type.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n In a mass casualty situation such as a school shooting, building collapse or airplane crash, EMS would be limited in how many transfusions it can do at the scene based on the number of whole blood units it has, said\u00a0Cmdr. Eric Gordon.\u00a0People would have to wait until they got to the hospital to receive a transfusion once EMS ran out of blood.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOur long-standing partnership with Austin-Travis County EMS made developing this mass casualty response protocol a natural step, strengthening our ability to act quickly and, together, saving lives across Central Texas when every second counts,\u201d said Justine Garza, vice president of business development at We Are Blood.<\/p>\n Through running different scenarios, EMS and We Are Blood developed a new protocol for mass casualties:<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n EMS notifies We Are Blood of the amount of blood it believes it will need.\u00a0 \u201cIn public safety, we prepare for the moments we hope never come,\u201d Luckritz said. \u201cBut if the unimaginable happens, this plan ensures we\u2019re ready, with the training, support and resources to give every patient a fighting chance.\u201d<\/p>\n Gordon said, though they had run the scenarios and were prepared to enact this new protocol when the West Sixth Street shooting\u00a0happened at Buford’s Backyard Beer Garden,\u00a0the need for blood did not extend beyond the units EMS already had. It did not need to use the new protocol. Two people and the gunman were killed, and 16 people were treated for injuries.<\/p>\n We Are Blood’s donation center in Cedar Park is one of four area centers for blood collection. Donors also can find a mobile blood drive.<\/p>\n Nicole Villalpando\/American-Statesman<\/p>\n The need for more donors\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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\nWe Are Blood, which has operations 24 hours a day, seven days a week, then lets EMS know how many units it can make available and\u00a0begins preparing those units to be picked up.
\nAn EMS \u201cblood officer\u201d then goes to We Are Blood to pick up the units and deliver them to the scene.\u00a0
\nIn the meantime, the blood units EMS has on the supervisor trucks already have arrived on the scene and\u00a0are being used for the first patients.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n