Emergency Blood Means Emergency Blood
by: rod
On our courses, delegates are often surprised by just how rapid a rapid transfusion can be – when the whole system works.
When planning our real resus room, we posed a simple question: How long should it take between deciding that a shocked trauma patient needs blood and the blood actually flowing?
Our answer: 60 seconds.
That’s ambitious. But if a critically bleeding patient needs emergency blood, the clue is in the name.
And achieving it depends on much more than making the clinical decision.
Where is the blood?
Who gets it?
How is it transported?
Is the rapid infuser ready?
Can the team prime it quickly and correctly?
Do we have adequate vascular access?
We talk about these things. We write massive transfusion protocols. We teach them.
But how often do we actually drill the whole process, in real time?
At ResusPro, we do – from recognising haemorrhage and activating the protocol to retrieving, checking and rapidly delivering blood.
Because emergency blood saves lives.
And getting it flowing quickly takes practice.
