In the weeks before REACH 38 began carrying blood aboard its Santa Maria-based medical helicopter, crews responded to at least four patients who could have used it.
One was trapped for hours inside an auger near Guadalupe.
The patient became snagged inside the agricultural machinery and remained stuck for roughly three hours as rescuers worked to free them, according to Dennis Rowley, program director for REACH 38.
The patient ultimately survived. But at the time, blood wasn’t routinely carried aboard the Santa Maria-based helicopter.
Now it is.
In late August, REACH 38, a Santa Maria based air ambulance service, launched a new blood program that lets its flight crews begin blood transfusions right at the scene of an emergency. For patients in rural and remote areas, the new capability could mean receiving blood 20 to 30 minutes sooner.
Rowley said that time can be critical because blood does more than circulate through the body—it carries oxygen to the organs that need it to survive.
“A very important thing to remember is that blood carries oxygen, so if they’re losing blood, it doesn’t matter how much oxygen they give,” Rowley said. “They don’t have the ability to transport it. So that gives us the ability to sustain their brain, their heart, and minds until they get to the care they need.”
Having blood aboard the aircraft allows crews to begin replacing what a patient has lost while transporting them to the hospital and, when necessary, surgery.
Severe trauma is not the only potential use. Crews can also administer blood to patients suffering internal bleeding, amputations, postpartum hemorrhage and other emergencies involving significant blood loss.
At the REACH 38 base in Santa Maria, making that possible involved far more than just bringing bags of blood aboard a helicopter.
It’s essential that blood is kept within a precise temperature range to remain viable. At the base, it’s being stored in a specialized refrigerator equipped with a monitoring system that constantly tracks its temperature and can be remotely monitored by REACH and Houchin Community Blood Bank, which supplies blood for the program.
“It allows the temperature of the blood to always be maintained and validated,” Rowley said. “Houchin can see it anytime on their phone. I can see it any time on my phone.”
Houchin regularly delivers blood to the Santa Maria base and takes back unused products as part of an exchange system, Rowley said. That allows blood that isn’t used by REACH crews to be returned to the health care system rather than going to waste.
When a call comes in, the blood is transferred from the refrigerator into a portable temperature-controlled container and carried aboard the helicopter with the crew.
For the crews stationed at REACH 38, the helicopter functions as a mobile critical-care unit, ready to respond at any given hour.
“Think of our shifts like firefighters,” said Jason Nguyen, a flight nurse with REACH 38. “We stay here for 24 hours, we do whatever we gotta do for the day, and if we get a call, we’re running”
A call can send the crew anywhere across Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Kern counties, including remote areas where reaching a hospital can take considerably longer.
Inside the helicopter, space is tight. A stretcher sits surrounded by monitors, medical supplies and equipment crews may need to stabilize a patient in flight.
Nguyen jokingly called the aircraft the crew’s “glorified van.”
Now, that compact space also has to accommodate the blood and the equipment needed to keep it viable in flight.
The program launches as the Santa Maria operation is also transitioning from its former CALSTAR identity to the REACH Air Medical Services name. Signs of both identities were still visible at the Santa Maria base.
REACH Air Medical Services is a part of Global Medical Response, a national provider of ground and air emergency medical services. The company’s statewide network also allows other aircraft to respond when the Santa Maria-based helicopter is already transporting a patient or undergoing maintenance.
For Rowley, however, the significance of the new program comes down to what crews can do during the minutes between reaching a critically bleeding patient and getting them to definitive care.
Whether the call is for someone trapped in machinery, injured in a crash or suffering a medical emergency miles from the nearest hospital, blood can now be available from the moment crews reach the patient.
Now, the blood goes with them.
