"Black Hawk Down" trauma surgeon Dr. John Holcomb urges agencies to equip ambulances with whole blood

By Dolly A. Butz

Sioux City Journal

SIOUX CITY, Iowa — A former Army trauma surgeon who provided life-saving care to soldiers during the Battle of Mogadishu, which inspired the movie “Black Hawk Down,” was in Sioux City last week promoting an initiative to make prehospital blood transfusions available on eligible ambulances across the United States, including in Siouxland.

Dr. John Holcomb, a retired Army Colonel and professor in the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Division of Acute Care Surgery, sits on the Prehospital Blood Transfusion Coalition’s board of directors with Eric Bank, assistant EMS Chief of Harris County, Texas, Emergency Service District No. 48. Holcomb and Bank met with first responders, health care professionals and local leaders Wednesday. They also visited