McAlester Regional AirCare begins carrying blood
McAlester Regional AirCare, a critical care air medical programme serving McAlester Regional Health Center and working with the Oklahoma Blood Institute, has received approval to carry whole blood.
McAlester Regional AirCare, a critical care air medical programme serving McAlester Regional Health Center and working with the Oklahoma Blood Institute, has received approval to carry whole blood onboard its helicopter to give to patients in need of lifesaving transfusions. US-based Med-Trans Corporation began serving the McAlester, Oklahoma area in 2015 under the name McAlester Regional AirCare.
Med-Trans president Rob Hamilton said: “The added ability to administer blood to patients while in transit gives the McAlester AirCare medical team another valuable treatment option responding to emergencies where time and enhanced patient care is critical to survival and patient outcomes. For critically injured individuals, access to blood in transit to the hospital could mean the difference between life and death.”
Units of O-negative blood provided by the Oklahoma Blood Institute will be stored on the McAlester Bell 407 GX helicopter in an insulated thermal cooler fitted with a temperature monitoring device. If blood is not used within a prescribed time frame, it will be sent back to the Oklahoma Blood Institute to be inspected and made available to other patients.