WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah (ABC4) — West Valley City has unveiled Utah's first pre-hospital blood program, an initiative to save lives.

David Morris, a trauma surgeon at Intermountain Medical Center, shared that through the program, Intermountain Health Center (IHC) provides a unit of blood to West Valley Fire Department to keep on hand for delivery to the site of injury for patients experiencing significant bleeding.

Morris says that by the time the patient reaches the emergency department, they are not in as severe a state of shock or blood loss thanks to the pre-hospital blood transfusion.

"We anticipate this will result in fewer blood product transfusions in our hospital because [the patient] won't arrive in such dire state," said Morris. "Hopefully it'll provide a bigger window of oppo

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