‘This was a game changer’: Burnsville ambulance crews are first in Minnesota to carry whole blood for transfusions
In a medical emergency, whole blood — red cells, plasma, and platelets — can be a lifesaver.
“This was a game changer,” declares Burnsville Fire Chief BJ Jungmann. “We needed to have it.”
“Whole blood is everything that patients are losing,” adds Drew McLaughlin, a Burnsville firefighter/paramedic. “We put the whole piece back.”
Starting this month, Burnsville emergency crews will be the first in Minnesota to be equipped with whole blood products.
Until now, ambulances in the city have been stocked with saline solution and some medications.
“We have like normal saline IVs that can replenish water volume,” explains Dr. Andrew Stevens, Medical Director for Burnsville Fire & EMS. “But when you’re bleeding out, it’s as simple as you’ve got to put blood back in.”
Partnering with Memorial Blood Centers, Burnsville is launching a pilot program — carrying a unit of type O-negative whole blood — safe for all transfusions, in one of its fire trucks.
The blood is to be transported in a portable refrigerator unit — like a high-tech cooler that keeps the blood chilled to below 40 degrees Fahrenheit.
“That blood is only good for twenty-one days, so we needed a good partner to be able to supply us with the blood,” Jungmann notes. “If we’re not using it, we don’t want to waste it, where else it could be used.”
The Burnsville department will keep the blood for one week, replacing it on a rotation basis.
If it’s not used, it will be returned to Memorial Blood Center, where it can be utilized somewhere else.
Experts say when seconds count, whole blood is key in helping to restore blood volume and clotting ability, all of which can help save a patient’s life.
“If you can bring blood to the civilians on the streets, it really increases your chances of survival when bleeding is the life-threatening issue,” Stevens says.
Hospitals typically keep blood components separate for different medical issues.
Red cells, which carry oxygen to the lungs, are used for trauma and blood loss.
Plasma, which maintains blood pressure, can be used to treat burn patients, or those with dehydration issues.
Platelets, which prevent blood clots, are used to treat cancer patients.
Those combined components can be a lifesaver.
“If you put them together in one package and you can get it to the patient early, you can transfuse them, just like you would in a hospital,” Stevens explains. “If you had a serious bleeding emergency, we’re going to save lives in Burnsville.”
For ambulance crews, a run to the nearest trauma center — HCMC or Regions Hospital, for example, can take thirty to forty-five minutes.
With this new program, Burnsville first responders will be able to bring whole blood to emergency scenes.
“In the past, you’re waiting up to possibly 45 minutes before a patient would receive blood products, from an accident scene to a hospital,” McLaughlin says. “Now we can get it to them at the point of injury, within a ten-minute time frame.”
Stevens says the Burnsville department generally has just over 9800 ambulance runs a year.
About ten percent of those calls involve life-threatening trauma injuries.
The hope is to eventually expand the program to more units.
“We get a lot of calls to go on. We want to make sure we’re going to do it right, not just quick,” Jungmann says. “So, it became a no-brainer as soon as we could make this happen. It was worth doing this.”
The timing of the program launch is also important to first responders and the community.
Next month marks one year since Burnsville Police Officers Paul Elmstrand and Matthew Ruge, and firefighter/paramedic Adam Finseth were killed while responding to a domestic call.
It’s been a time of reflection and remembrance but also inspiration to make a difference.
“I think it made us heal together, a commitment to saving more lives,” Stevens says. “And the strength of this community, to circle back around this project and look to a future where we save more lives.”