Blood on Board program expands to London, Ont. – London [Video]

London Health Sciences Centre and Ornge have partnered to provide patients with life-saving transfusions en route to the hospital.

Since the April 24 launch of the Blood on Board program in southern Ontario, two patients have already been saved by immediate transfusions.

En-route transfusions significantly improve patients’ outcomes since they no longer need to wait until they are in the hospital to receive blood. Each Ornge helicopter, ambulance and plane is equipped with a specialized cooler designed for the storage and transport of blood, to keep it within a certain temperature and ready for transfusion as needed. Within these coolers, there are several bags of O-negative blood.

After the blood is taken out of the cooler for use, it passes through a separate warmer to help prevent shock in a patient by warming the body from the inside out. If the blood is not at the correct temperature, the module …