“Not all injured patients benefit from the transfusion of plasma and blood products in the pre-hospital setting,” he noted. “This study provides important information on what types of patients and in what transportation scenarios this treatment is lifesaving.”

“The study is practice-changing from the standpoint that it should prompt medical evacuation units such as ambulances and helicopters to develop the capability to store and administer plasma and other kinds of blood products outside of hospital emergency rooms,” he said.

“For decades,” he added, “the practice has been to wait until the injured patient arrives at the medical center to give him or her plasma and other blood products, but the military’s lessons from war and its support of studies like this have shown that lives can be saved if this type of treatment is started much earlier, including at the scene of injury, or while the patient is being transported to the hospital.”

“The study may prompt members of the public to ask, ‘Does my community emergency medical system have plasma and blood products on its ambulances and helicopters, and if not, why not?'”