Groundbreaking EMS Program Reaches Anniversary

One year after Fort Worth Fire Department began carrying blood in the field, the results are already changing how emergency care happens before patients reach the hospital.

For decades, emergency responders have done everything they could for patients with severe bleeding: control what they could, stabilize and rush to the hospital. But for many patients, especially those in hemorrhagic shock, that gap between injury and hospital care can be the difference between life and death.

Now, that gap is smaller.

Instead of waiting until arrival at the emergency room, Fort Worth paramedics are delivering blood directly to patients in the field, minutes earlier, when it matters most.

“In the past, we would stabilize as best we could and transport,” said Matthew Willens, an EMS supervisor with Fort Worth Fire Department. “Now, we’re able to give patients what they actually need before they ever get to the hospital.”

That shift is already changing outcomes for patients.

Early in the program, one of the first patients to receive blood in the field made an immediate impression. After the transfusion, the patient arrived at the hospital looking so stable that an emergency physician initially joked the blood might not have been necessary.

The reality was the opposite.

The patient ultimately required surgery, and everyone involved agreed: without that early transfusion, the outcome likely would have been very different.

Moments like that have become proof of concept.

In less than a year, Fort Worth paramedics have administered more than 220 units in the field. These aren’t minor cases. More than half involve trauma, but a significant portion are medical emergencies, including internal bleeding and gastrointestinal hemorrhages.

“We are literally changing people’s lives and saving people’s lives in the field,” Willens said.

In one case, a patient who was pale, disoriented and unable to speak began receiving blood on scene. By the time she arrived at the hospital, she was awake and talking.

This is what earlier intervention looks like.

But saving lives is only part of the story. So is protecting the blood supply itself.

Blood is a limited, volunteer-driven resource, and programs like this only work if every unit is used responsibly. From the beginning, Fort Worth Fire and Carter BloodCare built a system to ensure that happens.

Unused blood doesn’t go to waste. Instead, it is carefully rotated back into the hospital system, including through partners like JPS Health Network, where it can be used for patients who need it most.

“We have an ethical obligation to use this resource wisely,” said Dr. Jeff Jarvis, medical director for Fort Worth Fire Department. “That means making sure every unit has the opportunity to help a patient.”

That balance — getting blood to patients faster while preserving the supply — is what makes this program sustainable.

And one year in, it’s no longer theoretical.

It’s working.

As EMS Week approaches, Fort Worth’s program stands as a growing example of what’s possible when emergency medicine and community blood donation come together. Every unit carried in the field starts with a donor. Every early transfusion depends on someone choosing to give.

“There is always a need for blood,” Jarvis said. “For us to do our job, we need you to do your job.”

Because even now, the need hasn’t changed.

People are still bleeding.

The difference is, in Fort Worth, help is arriving sooner.

And for more patients, that’s making all the difference.