It's hard to fathom yourself or a loved one in a lifesaving situation. You never know when you're in need of blood to save your life.

Coffee Memorial is now the 6th largest blood donation in the country and is still growing. We attended the special announcement as they shared their stories on why blood donations have had a huge impact on saving lives.

Coffee Memorial and Area Lifesaving Air Ambulance Teams announced on Thursday, Oct. 25th that they are able to carry blood on helicopters. In the event of a first response, helicopters are able to give whole blood to critical patients. The patient outcome and survival rate is much higher having full blood on the helicopter.

According to the press release:

Right now in a crisis and/or life-threatening situation, flight crews can only provide saline in the air to a patient who has lost a lot of blood.  Once all three air ambulance companies are up and running, each one will have O-negative blood on the air ambulances giving critical patients the best possible outcome. This will also create a greater need for O-negative donors.

We heard from Panhandle City Manager and former Panhandle EMS Director and Paramedic, Terry Coffee shared his story about how air ambulance and blood had an impact on the care of his son Blaze. Unfortunately, Blaze succumbed to his infections but his parents continued to carry on his legacy and how blood donations had such a huge impact during his care.

Coffee Memorial President and CEO Dr. John Armitage, talked about the importance of O-Negative and why O-Negative blood is crucial to critical care. Your blood could save your loved ones, friends, and relations.

This is such a huge accomplishment for our community and we are so honored we were invited out to Coffee Memorial to see how this new program is going to help save more lives.

 

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