Harris County Emergency Service District No. 11 rolled out a new program that allows ambulances to begin carrying blood plasma to administer to patients experiencing heavy blood loss in emergencies.
The big picture
HCESD 11 officials announced that several ambulances will now carry blood plasma to be able to offer transfusions to patients before they arrive at a hospital.
“Harris County ESD 11 will begin providing life-saving plasma to patients experiencing significant blood loss before they get to the hospital. Plasma will be carried on our supervisor vehicles, so we want to partner with Gulf Coast Blood and do our part to source blood for the cause,” Harris County ESD 11 CEO Jordan Anderson said.
HCESD11 Chief Quality Officer Kevin Crocker said the program will also help the district move toward offering whole blood transfusions, which are usually only able to be done at hospitals.
"Plasma is a safer, more affordable option to get started with the program," Crocker said. "There's a lot of regulations around blood administration, so once we solidified our ability to successfully give blood products, we know our system works, we'll probably move to a whole blood program."
Some details
As previously reported by Community Impact, HCESD 11 is a governing entity responsible for providing emergency health care to residents within the district. District first responders serve over 700,000 residents within 177 square miles of northern Harris County.
