Hundreds more lives are being saved after a surge in emergency blood transfusions carried out by air ambulance teams.
These have risen 43% in three years and created an urgent need for blood donors.
So today we call on readers to donate a pint each and become a Mirror Blood Hero.
Data obtained by the Mirror from 13 of the 18 air ambulance charities that carry blood shows 541 patients received emergency transfusions in 2021. This is up sharply from 378 in 2019.
More air ambulances are being supplied with blood as evidence mounts on-the-spot transfusions save lives.
It comes as one doctor described how he had no option but to attempt open heart surgery on a stab victim lying on the pavement 90 minutes from the nearest major trauma hospital.
The woman had been knifed in the heart. Dr Luke Banks opened her chest and reached in to massage the organ while repairing the puncture wound.
The patient was given four pints of lifesaving blood and eventually recovered.
Luke, 41, a consultant at Lincs and Notts Air Ambulance, arrived at the scene in the early hours.
He recalled: “We were in a very rural area and she needed to be on an operating table very quickly. She was in the process of dying.”
Luke worked on her injuries while air ambulance paramedic Alex Walker performed an emergency transfusion of the two pints they had with them.
Alex continued: “Only 10% of these patients even survive long enough to get to hospital. It’s almost unsurvivable. What was kind of unique was we were able to access the patient’s heart before it stopped beating.
“You get a lot of information when you are handling a patient’s heart because you can feel the strength of it. It was slowing down and not beating properly.”
The heart restarted 30 minutes after they began surgery. Luke then closed her chest with surgical staples.
The air ambulance helicopter had been grounded in Lincolnshire that night due to bad weather.
Driving her to a waiting surgical team at Nottingham’s Queen’s Medical Centre, Luke and Alex realised she needed more blood so a vehicle carrying two more pints met them en route so Alex could carry out another transfusion.
He explained: “The patient had lost an enormous amount of blood. She was really clinging on to life.
“Evidence shows emergency transfusions are the right thing to do. The contribution of blood donors can be the difference between life and death.”
The NHS is 75,000 blood donors short of what it needs to recover from Covid. Dr Laura Green of NHS Blood and Transplant, said: “Blood transfusion is an essential part of emergency treatment for severe bleeding. Any delay to transfusion can reduce the chances of survival.
“That’s why the role of air ambulances in delivering blood transfusions at the scene of an incident is crucial. Air ambulance crews are continually striving to provide even better care to patients.”
