Bloodmobile

Description

What is it important?

Loss of blood – is one of the most common causes of death during combat. It is not known how many ATO military personnel died because of blood loss, and global statistics show that between 25% and 45% of military losses happen for this reason. In order to reduce this potential loss of soldiers, volunteers have been delivering advanced hemostatic agents – throughout the war, and they have proven to be worth their weight in gold. However, this is only a temporary solution. Hemostatics, if available at positions, stop the bleeding and helps rescue the wounded, but we must do more to, at least, offset the massive blood loss. Blood is often the only chance to "delay time" and give physicians the opportunity to rescue the wounded. In such cases, the military paramedics try as soon as possible evacuate a victim to a place where he can take a transfusion. However, the opportunity is not always in the benefit of the wounded and can be a very difficult test for the wounded. To solve this problem, transfusion physician Rostyslav Zauralskiy became the brains behind the development of the BloodMobile project. People’s Project decided to help the doctor in setting up this project. Here are the details of the project.

What is the bloodmobile?
The Bloodmobile is a vehicle that delivers donated blood and its components to the ATO zone for the pre-hospital emergency medical help of seriously wounded soldiers. The car is equipped with special equipment that allows for the blood to be transported, at temperature conditions that are set at -2 to -6 °C for masses of erythrocytes and -40 °C for plasma. If the temperature regime is not met, the blood instantly becomes unsuitable for transfusion.

How does the Bloodmoblie work?
Requests from the Medical Corps, Avdiivka Central City Hospital and other hospitals at the front lines are to arrive in real time. The application contains information on what, where and when is needed to be delivered – plasma, fresh blood transfusion bags (containers for the collection of blood), infusion, medical supplies, sleeping bags, body armor, supplies and, in some cases – required doctors and specialists . The Bloodmobile’s components immediately meet the needs of the emergency, and it instantly moves off the road. The blood and its components have mostly been sourced from the Kremenchug and Kharkiv regional blood transfusion stations. By the way thawing plasma saves precious time and on arrival at the site the Bloodmobile’s blood components are ready for transfusion as soon as possible.

This video tells about how this project has started. (Video is in Russian)

The principle of the Bloodmobile
The principle of the Bloodmobile is to deliver blood to the patient to provide pre-hospital care in the first, so-called "golden hour" (the term in intensive care, which describes the limited period of time after injury in which first aid is most effective) after injury. This can increase the chances of saving a human life. This principle is an alternative to the existing – firstly deliver the patient to the hospital, and only there it will already provide comprehensive care. The Bloodmobile provides blood transfusion when it is needed.

How it began
The only vehicle in Ukraine for the delivery of blood components was introduced in 2014 on the initiative of Avdiivka transfusion specialist Rostyslav Zauralskiy. There is no other existing vehicle now in Ukraine.
Zauralskiy, the head of the department of transfusion medicine Kremenchug city hospital, has higher proficiency of transfusion, as well as being qualified in obstetrics and gynecology, has a PHD, and is Board member of the "Association of Emergentologists of Ukraine."
The vehicle legally belongs to the charitable organization "Pulse of Hope", which has signed contracts with blood transfusion stations, and end users (doctors and hospitals) in Kharkiv and Kremenchug.
In 18 months with the Bloodmobile he has traveled over 40 000 kilometers and has transported more than 100 liters of blood components – a mass of erythrocytes and plasma. (One dose of blood components – equals about 300-500 ml, so until the provision of hospital car, 200 heavily wounded can be stabilized).

Why Bloodmobile?
In emergencies there is not always have time to wait for an ambulance and not always the right amount of ambulances free or with enough time to cover all all-outs. To say nothing of the case in military action, the life of a soldier cannot always wait for these vehicles. Therefore, the Bloodmobile is needed to save the life of a Ukrainian hero, and not lose another on the way.

The purpose of the project
The main objective of the project is to save as many lives of heavily wounded military as possible, those requiring immediate blood transfusion. Of course, the blood will not cure the person, but will provide more time to save lives and to provide a comprehensive profile of the surgical and medical care needed.

Project relevance and prospects
To raise funds to purchase new equipment for the Bloodmobile is important because the current car because of wear-and-tear, has to be repaired almost every time it is used. In addition, one car is not enough for timely service across the front line. Ideally such vehicles for transportation of blood and blood components must function along the front line constantly.
Such transport of medical supplies, such as blood and its components, has great potential in civilian terms, and must be also be at the bases of air ambulance to carry out the transportation of blood supplies in situations where there is a need to provide medical assistance to victims (in disaster medicine, such as man-made emergencies and natural disasters).

Where the money goes

The project is to collect money to purchase a vehicle that meets all technical requirements, and improvement in its role as mobile blood transfusion station. After acquisition the Bloodmobile will be equipped and made ready to perform tasks in the ATO zone, we also plan to raise money for fuel for the vehicle and its maintenance.

• 13:3528June2017

  Project budget increased by 16 181 UAH. The active support of the project by the benefactors gave the opportunity to add to the budget and purchase more such needed blood blags than it was primarily planned.

• 19:1615June2017

  Project budget increased by 3 170 UAH. Several items from the budget were changed. First, set of tires on wheels and a spare wheel added to the budget. Second, thanx to the help of the students of Lviv Law school, need for catheters and systems for blood transfusion was covered in full.

• 14:4415May2017

  Project budget increased by 410 UAH. The number of necessary blood bags and infusion systems was slightly reduced, instead, the cost of spare parts and vehicle repair has raised.

• 13:2904May2017

  Project budget increased by 38 294 UAH. The vehicle was purchased at a price lower than it was first planned. Thus we can use the residual amount for spare parts and repair to prepare the car for difficult operating conditions.

• 18:1023February2017

  Project budget increased by 1 042 UAH. The originally listed inverter was replaced with another model, more suitable for the tasks of Bloodmobile.

16:2419January2017

Project budget increased by 3 306 UAH. Due to fluctuations of hryvnia prices for freezers slightly raised compared to the initial budget.

12:5620December2016

Project budget increased by 1 152 UAH. The number of cold generators in the project budget has doubled, thanks to the support of benefactors who donated 44 generators.