BRIDGEPORT – Bridgeport Hospital Foundation has invested $40,000 in the hospital’s lifesaving prehospital blood transfusion program. With the new cash infusion, Bridgeport Hospital is providing new, upgraded coolers for Emergency Medical Services (EMS) agencies to store the blood that paramedics need to administer blood transfusions directly in their ambulances at the point of care.
“Maintaining the safety and integrity of every unit of blood has always been our top priority,” said Dr. Edward Snyder, director of the Blood Bank at Bridgeport Hospital of Yale New Haven Health. “With advances in technology, we’ve upgraded how we store and monitor blood products, strengthening the chain of custody with more precise, real-time temperature tracking for every unit. These updated coolers enhance our ability to see exactly where blood is and confirm it remains within strict clinical standards at all times, even in challenging field conditions.”
The Bridgeport Hospital Blood Bank provides EMS teams, as available, with one unit of group O-positive red blood cells for use in the field. In the short time this program has been running, a dozen blood transfusions have been administered in the field. The blood transfusion program was started 10 months ago.
“Prehospital blood transfusion is one of the most powerful tools we have in emergency medicine today,” said Dr. Doug Latham, EMS medical director for Bridgeport Hospital. “We’ve already seen it save lives. Patients who might not have survived the trip to the hospital are now getting the critical intervention they need right at the scene. The impact has been immediate and undeniable, and it’s transforming outcomes for our most severely injured patients.”
This program is a collaboration with Bridgeport Hospital’s EMS partners from Bridgeport AMR, Trumbull EMS and Stratford EMS.
