CHEROKEE COUNTY, GA — Every minute that a trauma patient goes without a blood transfusion their risk of dying goes up 11%, so Cherokee County has equipped two of its trucks with blood and plasma.
They can start giving critical patients blood before they get to the ER.
EMS Division Chief Chad Huff says in the past they’ve used a saline solution to cause clotting, but nothing replaces the real thing.
“Now we have been able to give them back what they’re actually losing instead of going in and giving them something different,” Huff says.
They’ve already successfully used the new system on a trauma patient this week.
“We’ve strategically placed them north and south located very close to the highway, so they can intersect with units in traumatic injury situations as well as medical emergencies where blood infusion is needed,” Huff says.
Similar programs are also in use in Cobb, Paulding, and Bartow counties.