CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Kanawha County Emergency Ambulance Authority is one of the most recent organizations coming on board to a growing statewide initiative that gives first responders the ability to provide whole blood transfusions on ambulances in the field.
After implementing the whole blood program last year for EMS workers, the West Virginia Department of Health’s Office of Emergency Medical Services announced that they have seen remarkable effects in how the program is helping to save lives and improve trauma care outcomes.
Kanawha County Emergency Ambulance Authority Education Manager Rita White said they are more than ready to get on board with it.
“It will change lives, to put it mildly,” White said. “Because we know that getting blood products to those who are hemorrhaging, the sooner you get it to the patient, the better the outcome they have.”
Following the program’s launch, the Cabell County EMS has been successfully providing whole blood transfusions on ambulances since November 2023. Harrison County then joined the effort in March of this year.
DH Secretary Dr. Sherri Young said that it’s good to see the vital impact growing across the state.
“Our commitment to expanding this life-saving program is unwavering,” stated Young. “We are actively working to extend the availability of whole blood transfusions to more counties with the goal of achieving statewide coverage.”
White said they are currently in the final phases of implementing the program.
“We are working on the steps, we have all of the equipment, we’re just crossing the bridge between legal and acquiring the blood and the rest of the process like that to join the others across the state who do administer blood in the 911,” she said.
The Charleston Fire Department is also in the final stages of getting the program started up there as well. 
So far, a total of 21 units of whole blood have been administered to 16 patients across the state before they even made it to the hospital to receive life-saving treatment.
According to the Department of Health, whole blood transfusions significantly increase the survival rate in trauma patients by rapidly restoring blood volume and enhancing the clotting function.
White said this program is crucial as severe bleeding is one of the leading causes of death in trauma victims and responding to them as early as they can is critical to saving their life.
“With someone who is bleeding, whether it’s internally or externally, if you do not have blood to put back very soon then we can’t stop the dying process, we can put a pause on it, a band-aid on it, but unless you have blood to replace for these patients who are bleeding significantly, we can’t stop that process without blood,” said White.
The DH said West Virginia has been one of states leading the initiative to implement comprehensive statewide protocols for administering whole blood in the field.
Extensive training and education has been being conducted to EMS personnel statewide to ensure the program’s success.
And White said this comprehensive statewide training is certainly seeming to have an impact on the program’s success thus far.
“As much access as what we’re trying to get in West Virginia, I think that that’s what is leading in that with our statewide protocols and having everybody in the same training, it gives other agencies who want to be involved and do that the ability to know how and make it easier to transition so that we can help everybody across West Virginia.”
In addition, Camden Clark Ambulance Service is at the beginning stages of development of the program, while Mineral County is currently working with WVU Medicine to implement the program there.
The DH encourages people to continue to become donors and give blood as that what makes the program possible.