Medical experts said patients experiencing blood loss could be minutes away from death. To help improve the odds, a pre-hospital blood transfusion program used in central Indiana authorizes emergency medical technicians to administer blood transfusions at accident sites to give patients precious time.

The program promotes the use of Autonomous Portable Refrigeration Units, which store mobile blood supplies at the required temperature for transfusions, stabilizing severely injured patients until they arrive at the nearest hospital.

Ted Allen, division chief of EMS for the Plainfield Fire Territory, said hospital-quality O-positive blood is kept inside the cooling devices and 80% of the population is a match.

“It’s hardwired into the truck. It also has a 90-plus-hour battery,” Allen explained. “In that cooler, there’s basically a computer that’s hooked to Wi-Fi and it will fluctuate between two degrees and six degrees Celsius, pretty much staying at four degrees Celsius all the time. And I can actually look at the temperature at any given time. It would alarm us if it gets too cold or too warm.”

A grant from the Hendricks County Community Foundation and The Anderson Family Fund is funding training and related costs for the units. Allen noted conversations are taking place to extend the program to more cities just outside of Plainfield.

A total of 12 Indiana fire departments are using the pre-hospital blood transfusion program. Plainfield Fire Territory has joined fire departments in Crawfordsville and New Castle, and the Westfield Fire Department is next in line. Allen added his department quickly learned how effective the program is.

“Thirty-five hours after we went in service with our first unit of the O blood, we used it for a traumatic injury on the interstate,” Allen recounted. “It has saved a life already.”

According to the website EMS.gov, trauma patients who receive whole blood after injury are four times more likely to survive.