LifeFlight adds blood to its set of life-saving tools
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SENTINEL FILE PHOTO - Geisinger LifeFlight 5 approaches the Shenandoah Helipad on March 16, 2018.
By Kaylee Lindenmuth | [email protected]
PRIMROSE- For decades, Geisinger LifeFlight has been a key partner in saving lives in northern Schuylkill County, providing emergency medical care and a quick transport to trauma centers in Montour and Lehigh Counites.
Until this year, though, the paramedics and flight nurses aboard the helicopter were without a critical life-saving tool: blood.
Earlier this year, Geisinger equipped each of its LifeFlight bases, including that of LifeFlight 5 outside Primrose in Cass Township, and its helicopters with equipment needed to properly store and transport blood, which they say allows crews to begin a blood transfusion as part of pre-hospital care. Each helicopter now carries two units of type O blood.
“Administering blood to a traumatically injured patient before arriving at the hospital has been shown to decrease shock, reduce the need for blood transfusions in the hospital, and increases survival rates,” said Dr. Samuel Slimmer, a Geisinger emergency medicine physician and Life Flight’s associate medical director. “With the patient better stabilized when they arrive, we’re able to better evaluate their injuries and make sure they’re getting the correct treatment. In many cases, it can speed up the treatment process for patients who are often suffering from critical, life-threatening injuries. It makes a lot of sense, and it’s the right thing to do for the patient.”
“Being able to give blood to a patient before arriving at the hospital saves lives”
Steve Davis, flight nurse, LifeFlight 4
Paramedics and flight nurses for LifeFlight were trained on how to store and pack blood and how to administer a blood transfusion, and guidelines were also established for how and when to use blood in the field. Flights crews remain in contact with medical command staff to evaluate patients and determine if a blood transfusion is appropriate en route to the hospital.
“Being able to give blood to a patient before arriving at the hospital saves lives,” said Steve Davis, a flight nurse and supervisor at the Life Flight 4 base in Montoursville. “This has been a year-long process and something we recognized we needed to do to continue to enhance the critical and pre-hospital care our crew members provide every day. By offering this care, we’re adding value to the communities we serve.”
“Geisinger’s blood bank collaborated with Life Flight to create, enact and document proper workflows to manage blood storage and usage,” said Dr. Deborah Novak, a Geisinger transfusion medicine physician. “This included working together to teach the proper way to set up blood storage, how to transport blood in compliance with strict regulatory standards and how to properly monitor blood storage.”
According to the company, since its helicopters began carrying blood, transfusions have been administered more than 30 times.
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