(Credit for Photo: Photo Provided with Release Courtesy of Allegheny Health Network)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA) Allegheny Health Network (AHN) Prehospital Care Services recently launched a new prehospital blood program which will enable specially trained AHN paramedics to administer blood products to ill and critically injured patients before they reach the hospital. 

The program is being deployed in phases across five AHN Paramedic Response Units (PRUs) that serve the Belle Vernon, Tarentum, Monroeville, Wexford and northern Butler County areas. 

Each regional response team will feature its own specially equipped PRU vehicle that is staffed by a paramedic, to provide support during high-priority emergency calls such as cardiac arrest, vehicle accidents and other life-threatening emergencies.  

Each of the vehicles within the five deployment areas will be able to carry Type O blood products in refrigeration units that are temperature-monitored. 

This will represent one of Pennsylvania’s largest hospital-affiliated prehospital ground-support blood programs when the initiative is completed.