Auckland HEMS prehospital blood transfusion – coming soon to a helicopter near you

Bloody hell.

Pretty much summarizes the severe traumas that define the essence of our trade.

And sometimes, the answer to critical bleeding is to give blood.

We are grateful to our colleagues at Sydney HEMS, who advise: “blood is provided to transfuse patients with life-threatening bleeding after meticulous attention to hemorrhage control.”

Auckland HEMS is poised to begin providing prehospital blood as part of our bundle of critical clinical interventions. We are fortunate to collaborate with the New Zealand Blood Service and with our local District Health Board to provide this service. http://www.nzblood.co.nz

Herein, please find our training video. We welcome your feedback.

Our draft Blood SOP is undergoing usability testing with our clinical teams. Once finalized, we will share this for FOAM.

This is an unsystematic review of the current literature. A few themes are emerging: