Dallas cuts delay in getting blood to trauma victims, allowing paramedics to start transfusions in field
DALLAS – When a neighbor's dog bit down on 7-year-old Marigny Wilson-Martin's legs, its teeth pierced her femoral artery.
"They had estimated she lost three-quarters of her blood," said her mother, Gretchen Wilson-Martin. "I was drenched in blood. My entire T-shirt was just saturated with blood."
In her family's hometown of New Orleans, though, ambulances are stocked with packed red blood cells, which allowed paramedics to begin a transfusion as soon as they reached Marigny.
"She was purple and so gray and just didn't look well. And then just seeing her come back," recalls her mother, Mickie Wilson-Martin.
"It really did and truly save her life," said Gretchen.
Dallas Fire Rescue, which operates ambulances in the city of Dallas, has been working for a year and a half to get this very same capability.
This week, it launched a pilot program, positioning military-grade coolers containing packed red blood cells in vehicles at Fire Station 32 in Pleasant Grove and Fire Station 42 near Love Field, locations where it found it could quickly dispatch to areas where it receives the most calls for gunshot wounds, stabbings, and other traumas.
Whether it's the result of violence, a car crash, or a household accident, blood loss, according to a Dallas Fire Rescue presentation on the program, is the leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 46 involved in a major trauma.
A study of patients Dallas paramedics treated in 2023 found as many as 674 could have benefited from blood transfusions en route to the hospital.
The city of Frisco was the first in North Texas to begin carrying blood in 2018 after a construction accident required an in-field amputation.
Last year, Frisco reported it provided blood transfusions to 20 patients.
With a limited supply of blood available, though, there has been some caution in moving forward with programs like these.
"It's important that we walk before we run on the project so that we can demonstrate to the American Red Cross, to Parkland, and to other regulatory agencies that we're good stewards of the blood supply," Dallas Fire Rescue Medical Director Dr. Marshal Isaacs told the city's public safety committee last month.
Meanwhile, four years after the attack on Marigny, she barely notices the scars on her legs.
"Other people notice it but me, not really," she said.
And her mothers? They've become regular blood donors, grateful for the gift of life their daughter once received.
"She has survived and is thriving," said Mickie.
If Dallas' six-month pilot program is successful, the city hopes to expand it and make blood available from other fire stations as well.
