Canton Fire Department’s full-blooded program pressed into action following ATV accident in Walpole Friday night

CANTON – Chief Wendell Robery is very proud to report that the Canton Fire Department’s Field Transfusion Paramedic Program was once again called upon to assist in the rescue and emergency medical care of a trauma patient.

On Friday, July 19, 2024, shortly before 8 p.m., the Walpole Canton Fire Department requested a mutual aid call. Walpole had responded to a densely wooded area where an overturned all-terrain vehicle (ATV) had been reported with a patient trapped inside and bleeding profusely. The Walpole Fire Department extricated the patient, treated him, and quickly transported the 20-year-old man to a landing zone at a baseball field in town. Walpole firefighters assessed the patient and determined that full blood was needed on the field and a rescue helicopter was needed to quickly transport the patient to a trauma center.

Paramedics Douglas Connor and Daniel Pendergast of the Canton Firefighters were within minutes on their way to the landing zone in an interceptor vehicle, where the patient was given a blood transfusion and diagnosed as O negative. As a direct result of this procedure, the patient’s vital signs soon improved and he was even able to speak with paramedics as he was loaded into a Boston MedFlight rescue helicopter, which flew him to a Boston hospital for further treatment.

“Programs like this allow firefighters to administer whole blood and literally replace what was lost in the field. This allows paramedics to better stabilize patients and get them to the hospital in better condition when literally every second counts,” said Chief Robery.

Chief Robery emphasizes that programs like this one work primarily because of the close partnership and collaboration between public safety agencies. In this case, the Walpole and Canton fire departments and MedFlight worked together to rescue, treat and transport the patient.

“We worked in lockstep on Friday night,” said Chief Robery. “Programs like this are further evidence of the good work our interagency teams do, regardless of borders.”

According to the government-supported Stop the Bleed initiative, bleeding is the leading cause of death following injury. The rapid availability of whole blood is a matter of life and death for many patients and is considered a more effective treatment than traditional paramedical techniques such as intravenous fluids or plasma/component therapy.

The Field Transfusion Paramedic Program is new, and the Canton Fire Department was the first agency in Massachusetts to administer a whole blood transfusion to a patient on site following a car accident in Braintree on June 29.

In March, the Canton Fire Department, in partnership with Boston Medical Center, launched the first pilot program in Massachusetts history to administer whole blood before a patient is admitted to the hospital. Twenty-five communities around Canton are participating in the program.

For more information about the Canton Fire Department’s Field Transfusion Program, visit the Canton Fire Department website.

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