By MES Dispatch Staff
The Briefing
- Palm Beach Gardens Fire Rescue in Florida has given whole blood to 40 patients since launching a prehospital whole blood program in April 2024, according to Division Chief Alex Lamb, the department’s EMS chief.
- Of the 40 administrations, 26 involved trauma patients and 14 involved medical patients, with patients ranging in age from 1 to 94.
- Each of the department’s two EMS supervisor vehicles carries one unit of whole blood.
- A retrospective review of two years of trauma patients estimated that 12 to 14 patients a year could benefit, and a $35,000 grant from a local charitable organization covered most first-year operating costs.
- All but four of the 40 patients were taken to surgical intervention or other definitive care; Lamb cautioned that transport and survival data alone do not establish the effect of the transfusions.
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — Palm Beach Gardens Fire Rescue has administered whole blood to 40 patients in the field since launching a prehospital transfusion program in April 2024, the department’s division chief of EMS wrote.
Division Chief Alex Lamb said the department began exploring the idea after members attended the 2023 Gathering of Eagles EMS Conference in Hollywood, Florida. A retrospective review of two years of trauma patients followed. It estimated that about 12 to 14 patients annually could benefit from early whole blood, which Lamb said gave command staff and city administration the justification to proceed.
Planning took six to eight months, covering clinical protocols, a contract with a blood supplier, legal review, equipment and training, Lamb wrote. The department drew on a south Florida prehospital whole blood coalition led by Dr. Peter Antevy, one of its medical directors, and on agencies that had launched programs earlier. Because the program started mid-budget year, the department obtained a $35,000 grant from a local charitable organization to cover most first-year costs.
Under the current model, each of the department’s two EMS supervisor vehicles carries one unit of whole blood. Protocols authorize administration for hemorrhagic trauma and for medical emergencies involving significant blood loss. Lamb said the blood has a usable period of about 18 days, which creates logistical and financial considerations.
Since launch, the department has given whole blood 26 times to trauma patients and 14 times to medical patients, ranging in age from 1 to 94. All but four of the 40 patients were transported to surgical intervention or other definitive care. Lamb wrote that those figures do not establish the independent effect of prehospital transfusion, and that continued outcome tracking is needed.
The department serves about 64,547 residents across 59 square miles in northern Palm Beach County, with an annual budget of about $43.5 million and roughly 15,000 calls a year.