Giving patients a better chance of survival

The helicopter is called out to car crashes, medical emergencies and alerts on the fells - staffed by experts and proving a help to those in peril.

For the last year it has carried red blood cells on board, allowing specially-trained medics to give blood transfusions to patients with life-threatening bleeding. This has taken place on board the 'copter or at the roadside.

Now the service has taken another step forward in its aim to save as many lives as possible.

The charity operating the helicopter is now carrying defrosted fresh frozen plasma on board its aircraft.

Its description might not be for the squeamish - but this substance provides vital clotting components to help blood clots form and, crucially, to stop bleeding.

The Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) says it is one of the very first air ambulance charities in the UK to carry plasma on-board.

When given together with blood, it is thought it will offer patients an even better chance of survival when facing possibly the greatest traumas of their lives.

GNAAS has teamed up with hospital officials and organisations including Cumbria’s blood bikes charity to make this move possible.

Dr Rachel Hawes is a GNAAS aircrew doctor. She explains the importance of this new development.

“The transfusions we currently give are purely O negative red blood cells,” says Dr Hawes.

“It replaces lost blood and ensures that the oxygen carried by the new blood gets to all the major organs, buying us as much time as possible while we stabilise and transfer the patient to the nearest major trauma centre.

The Great North Air Ambulance Service

An air ambulance charity operating two helicopters, 365-days-a-year, across Cumbria as well as in the north-east, Yorkshire and Cumbria.

GNAAS crews respond to about 1,000 call-outs each year.

On board its aircraft are specialist trauma doctors and paramedics, who bring expertise to some of the most severely ill and injured patients in the north.

"Blood on board has allowed us to greatly improve outcomes for our trauma patients.

"Yet scientific studies suggest that up to 30 per cent of trauma patients with severe bleeding are no longer able to form blood clots normally by the time they arrive in the emergency department.

“In fact our own research confirms this to be the case in our region."

She says the effect of this means that when patients arrive in an emergency department they have not been able to produce enough of their own blood clots to keep up with the bleeding.

This leads to the bleeding spiralling out of control.

“By giving a more balanced transfusion, using equal volumes of red blood cells and plasma, we hope to prevent this happening to our critically ill patients, ultimately helping to save their lives,” adds Dr Hawes.

The one-year anniversary of carrying red blood cells on board the aircraft was celebrated recently.

It led to representatives from organisations involved in that scheme meeting patients who are alive today because of the rapid blood tranfusions they were given at the scene of the incident they were involved in.

Now GNAAS is moving on again, using the latest cutting-edge methods.

Dr Hawes adds: “We are delighted to be in a position to provide the most up-to-date, clinical techniques.”

GNAAS is also working with hospitals in Newcastle and the Henry Surtees Foundation, which aims to raise funds to support accident care, on the project.

A three month trial is now underway. 

Blood Bikes Cumbria, which transports blood and other medical necessities, is at the heart of the county operation.

Each day a member from both this organisation and Northumbria Blood Bikes will collect a cool box from labs at Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI).

They will be transported to the two GNAAS airfields – Durham Tees Valley Airport and Langwathby, near Penrith.

The cool box will contain two units of blood and two units of plasma.

These boxes keep their content cool for up to 48 hours and so if they not used they are returned to the RVI to be used during surgery and other procedures in the hospital.

Dr Hawes adds: “To carry out a regional programme of this scale, across one of the most challenging geographical areas in the UK, takes great dedication and strong collaborative working.

“Blood, and now pre-hospital plasma on board the GNAAS aircraft, simply wouldn’t be feasible without the strength of our partnerships and without the support of the public, whose donations make it all possible.”

Yvonne Scott is the transfusion manager for the blood sciences department covering hospitals in Newcastle.

She says: "Blood transfusions are an essential feature in the NHS, used to treat many different types of illnesses and conditions as well as replacing severe blood loss due to major trauma.

“Blood is a mixture of red blood cells, white blood cells - which help the immune system fight off infection - platelets and plasma.

“For blood to function normally you need all of these components.

“After blood is donated it is separated and split down into its different components, which can be stored for longer.

“In most cases when we give blood or blood products in hospital the patient only needs one component.

“For example, if they are anaemic, they will receive just red cells.

“If they have a specific blood related disorders, they may just receive the platelets and so on.”

She says if the patient is bleeding they are losing “whole blood”.

“So we need to give the equivalent of whole blood back to the patient to keep them alive.

“Red blood cells carry oxygen round the body to the vital organs.

"But plasma carries the clotting factors, which are needed to make a blood clot and stop patients from bleeding.

“For major trauma patients, these are the two most important components in their time of need.”

Blood Bikes Cumbria

Established by volunteers to deliver rapidly, without cost, essential blood and urgent medical supplies. They work out-of-hours, between hospitals and healthcare sites and labs.

Part of a national network of Blood Bikes groups, known as the Nationwide Association of Blood Bikes.