Dallas Fire-Rescue\u2019s mobile blood transfusion program has expanded across the city and is credited with saving an estimated 75 lives since launching in early 2025, including helping treat a Dallas ISD officer who was shot in North Dallas in August.<\/p>\n
Officer Justin Jones was shot Aug. 6 by someone he was trying to help at a North Dallas shopping center. A Dallas Fire-Rescue crew happened to be nearby and responded to help Jones, who was bleeding from his right leg.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey rushed to help this downed officer while the gunman was still \u2013 he hadn\u2019t been neutralized,\u201d DFR Chief Justin Ball said.<\/p>\n
After a Dallas ISD officer applied a tourniquet, Jones received a two-unit blood transfusion in the parking lot before he ever arrived at Parkland.<\/p>\n
The response was highlighted Wednesday as Dallas city leaders recognized the work of DFR\u2019s blood transfusion program.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is what innovation looks like \u2013 when the stakes could not be higher,\u201d Kimberly Bizor Tolbert said.<\/p>\n
The program began in early 2025 in partnership with Parkland and the American Red Cross. Blood units are stored in remotely monitored, military-grade coolers, with each holding two units of blood.<\/p>\n
\u201c2 units of blood can save a life,\u201d EMS supervisor Jack Barr said.<\/p>\n
When NBC 5 spoke with Barr in August 2025, months after the pilot program began with just two coolers, he described the care crews took with the blood supply.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe take care of it like, well, like it\u2019s precious,\u201d Barr said.<\/p>\n
By this summer, the program had expanded to seven mobile coolers across Dallas. One of those coolers was close enough to Jones on Aug. 6 to allow crews to begin the blood transfusion at the shooting scene rather than waiting until he reached the hospital.<\/p>\n
City officials said the program is working, with an estimated 75 lives saved since its launch about a year and a half ago.<\/p>\n
This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC DFW. AI tools helped convert the story into a digital article, and an NBC DFW journalist edited it again before publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dallas Fire-Rescue\u2019s mobile blood transfusion program has expanded across the city and is credited with saving an estimated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103],"class_list":["post-426647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}