ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – St. Johns County Fire and Rescue has significantly improved survival rates by carrying blood to critical accident scenes.
Lt. Sean Brasiel and his team have been providing blood transfusions on scene since March.
Blood drop stickers on the back of the Ford SUV that carries the blood each symbolize a life potentially saved. While not a traditional fire truck, the SUV carries its weight in the liquid life-saving gold.
Many people are surprised that blood can be delivered directly to a scene.
“Like a lot of people, when I tell them we do it, they’re like, ‘You can get blood out there?’” Brasiel said.
One of the blood drop stickers represents a transfusion given to a dying patient from Halifax who had only an 8% chance of survival.
“He walked out of the hospital,” Brasiel said. “That’s big. We’re changing the way medicine’s done.”
The team has administered blood transfusions 16 times under the direction of medical director Dr. Kerry Bachista.
“When I look at this and I see the blood drops on the back of that vehicle, it tells me it works,” Bachista said.
The process is straightforward: Crews arrive, retrieve refrigerated blood, administer it, and then EMS transports the patient to the hospital. This approach targets the critical “golden hour.”
“We’re buying time to get them to the definitive treatment that we need,” Brasiel said. “That’s the whole purpose of giving pre-hospital blood transfusions—to buy them the time to save their life.”
Currently, if a blood transfusion is needed on scene, the one dedicated unit brings the blood to the scene, but the county has plans to expand the program.