CANTON — Chief Wendell Robery is very proud to report that the Canton Fire Department’s Field Transfusion Paramedic Program was again called into service to assist in the rescue and emergency medical care of a trauma patient.
On Friday, July 19, 2024 shortly before 8 p.m., the Walpole Fire Department requested mutual aid from Canton. Walpole had responded to a densely wooded area for a report of an overturned all-terrain vehicle (ATV) with a patient trapped and bleeding profusely. Walpole Fire extricated the patient, treated him, and rushed the 20-year-old man to a landing zone at a baseball field in town. Walpole Firefighters, evaluating the patient, determined that there was a need for whole blood in the field and that a medical helicopter was needed to quickly transport the patient to a trauma center.
Canton Firefighter Paramedics Douglas Connor and Daniel Pendergast responded in an intercept vehicle to the landing zone in a matter of minutes, where a unit of O-negative blood was administered to the patient. As a direct result of this action, the patient’s vital signs soon became stronger, and the patient was even talking to medics as he was loaded onto a Boston MedFlight medical helicopter, which flew him to a Boston hospital for further treatment.
“Programs like this allow firefighters to administer whole blood and literally replace what was lost in the field. This allows paramedics to better stabilize patients to get them to a hospital in better condition when literally seconds count,” Chief Robery said.
Chief Robery stresses that programs like this work in large part thanks to the strong bonds of partnership and cooperation that exist among public safety agencies. In this instance, the Walpole and Canton Fire Departments and MedFlight all worked together to rescue, treat and transport the patient.
“We worked in lockstep on Friday evening,” Chief Robery said. “Programs like this further illustrate the good work of our inter-agency teams, regardless of borders.”
Affording to the federally-supported Stop the Bleed initiative, bleeding is the number one cause of death after an injury. The rapid availability of whole blood is a matter of life and death for many patients, and it has been seen as a more effective treatment than traditional paramedical techniques, such as the administration of intravenous fluids or plasma/component therapy.
The Field Transfusion Paramedic Program is new, and the Canton Fire Department became the first agency in Massachusetts to administer a whole blood transfusion to a patient in the field on June 29 after a motor vehicle crash in Braintree.
In March, the Canton Fire Department, in collaboration with Boston Medical Center, launched the first pilot program in Massachusetts history for administering whole blood before a patient reaches the hospital. The program includes participation from 25 municipalities surrounding Canton.
For more information about the Canton Fire Department’s Field Transfusion Program, please visit the Canton Fire Department’s website.
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