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FEATURE

in Arms

By Samantha Gomez Ngamsuntikul, MD

The South Texas Blood & Tissue Cen- by the San Antonio Medical Foundation. every week. A total of 136 units have been
ter, working in conjunction with regional “Implementing this program for civilian collected from that group.
medical helicopter providers and the use will truly transform how emergency Using blood from O-positive donors,
Southwest Texas Regional Advisory care can be administered on medical heli- the most common type in the United
Council, has launched a new program for copters and significantly improve survival States, can help reduce ongoing strains on
emergency transfusions called “Brothers rates for trauma victims.” said Elizabeth the O-negative inventory.
in Arms.” Waltman, COO of the South Texas Blood Kept in proper conditions, the whole
The program, which has the potential to & Tissue Center, which is a subsidiary of blood also preserves platelets and their
dramatically change trauma care in this San Antonio nonprofit BioBridge Global. functionality beyond the current 5-day
country, began earlier this year. It provides “This is also the first step toward a shelf life – up to 35 days under proper
specially tested whole blood for transfu- longer-term solution for saving more lives conditions.
sion use in 18 medical helicopters, as re- in mass-casualty situations, especially if we South Texas Blood & Tissue Center’s
search has shown whole-blood are able to expand the program in the fu- sister blood-testing organization, QualTex
transfusions are better than pRBC or com- ture to include emergency care provided by Laboratories, worked with the military to
ponent therapy at countering blood loss, ambulance services.” develop the testing protocol to identify O-
dramatically improving survival rates. Blood donations for Brothers in Arms positive donors with low antibody levels,
San Antonio is one of the first cities to come from a group of male O-positive making it possible to use O-positive blood
implement the system, which is based on a blood donors who have low titer levels of for these trauma victims.
battlefield program developed by the U.S. anti-A and anti-B antibodies (IgM). The The program is targeting male O-posi-
military and later adapted at the Mayo cutoff level is a ration of less than 1:256; tive donors because men tend to have
Clinic trauma center. The 75th Ranger approximately 15 percent of male O-posi- lower levels of certain types of antibodies
Regiment “O Low-Titer Whole Blood Pro- tive donors are considered low-titer under in their blood than women, reducing the
gram” was the recipient of the Army’s those criteria. Donors in the program are possibility of transfusion related acute lung
Greatest Innovation Award in 2017. tested annually. injury (TRALI) among patients.
The program was established in San An- As of April 17, STBTC has 179 donors STBTC is developing a committed
tonio with support from a grant provided enrolled in the program, with more added pool of male O-positive donors for the

30 San Antonio Medicine • July 2018