{"id":144685,"date":"2025-09-03T02:46:33","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T06:46:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=144685"},"modified":"2025-09-03T02:46:33","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T06:46:33","slug":"st-lukes-ambulances-save-lives-with-whole-blood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=144685","title":{"rendered":"St. Luke\u2019s Ambulances Save Lives with Whole Blood"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><em>Photo caption: SLETS employees in front of special critical care transport (CCT) ambulances equipped for whole blood transfusion. Chris Zukowski is second from left.<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In recent months, St. Luke\u2019s ambulances equipped with whole blood have saved numerous lives, including car accident survivors and a gunshot victim.<\/p>\n<p>Whole blood is a powerful, lifesaving tool because, unlike IV fluid, it contains vital components \u2013 red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets and plasma, explained Chris Zukowski, MSN, RN, of St. Luke\u2019s Emergency and Transport Services (SLETS).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCommunities served by St. Luke\u2019s ambulances with whole blood are incredibly fortunate, because it is a real game-changer for first-responders,\u201d he said. \u201cMost other ambulance corps do not have the sophisticated equipment and advanced training to administer whole blood transfusion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In July 2024, SLETS became one of the region\u2019s first ambulance services to carry whole blood on its special critical care transport (CCT) ambulances, initially for the transport of patients between Network hospitals.<\/p>\n<p>But as the recent life-saving examples illustrate, SLETS ambulances in Monroe, Bucks and Lehigh counties are now also using whole blood, when necessary, to save people\u2019s lives\u00a0<em>before<\/em>\u00a0they reach the hospital.<\/p>\n<p>This development follows a recent change in Pennsylvania regulations allowing general paramedics\u2014those found on traditional ambulances\u2014to be trained and certified to administer whole blood. (St. Luke\u2019s Dr. Bryan Wilson, who helped draft the new protocol, leads a St. Luke&#8217;s EMS Physician Response Team that also administers a prehospital whole blood transfusion. See\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.slhn.org\/blog\/2025\/new-state-protocol-drafted-by-sluhn-doc-saves-lives\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.slhn.org\/blog\/2025\/new-state-protocol-drafted-by-sluhn-doc-saves-lives<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf ambulances don\u2019t have whole blood and they respond to a scene, like a horrible accident on I-78, responders can apply a tourniquet and administer IV fluids \u2013 but those measures don\u2019t have oxygen-carrying capabilities,\u201d Zukowski said. \u201cProviding whole blood at the scene of an accident helps to stabilize patients until we can get them to one of trauma centers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>About St. Luke\u2019s<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Founded in 1872, St. Luke\u2019s University Health Network (SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network with annual net revenue of more than $4 billion. With 23,000+ employees at 16 hospital campuses and 350+ outpatient sites, it is the Lehigh Valley\u2019s biggest employer.<\/p>\n<p>The Network\u2019s service area includes 11 counties in two states: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. St. Luke\u2019s hospitals operate the largest network of trauma centers in Pennsylvania, with the Bethlehem Campus being home to St. Luke\u2019s Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n<p>Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke\u2019s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania. In partnership with Temple University, the Network established the Lehigh Valley\u2019s first and only four-year medical school. It also operates the nation\u2019s oldest School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 50+ fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with 500+ residents and fellows.<\/p>\n<p>St. Luke\u2019s has been named a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades Top Hospital and a Newsweek World\u2019s Best Hospital. It is the only Lehigh Valley-based health care system to earn Medicare\u2019s five-star ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction. In 2025, the Network earned straight A\u2019s from Leapfrog across all of its 11 acute care hospitals. It has earned 100 Top Hospital designations from Premier 11 years in a row, including in 2021 when its flagship University Hospital was identified as THE #1 TEACHING HOSPITAL IN THE COUNTRY. Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of SLUHN\u2019s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Information provided to TVL by:<br \/>\nSam Kennedy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Photo caption: SLETS employees in front of special critical care transport (CCT) ambulances equipped for whole blood transfusion. Chris Zukowski is second from left. In recent months, St. Luke\u2019s ambulances &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=144685\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">St. Luke\u2019s Ambulances Save Lives with Whole Blood<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144686,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-144685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/sluhn-amb-blood.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144685"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=144685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/144686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=144685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=144685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=144685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}