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September 23, 2026 / 3:34 PM PDT / CBS LA
The Pasadena Fire Department has joined a growing movement to provide life-saving blood transfusions at the scene of emergencies, using military-grade equipment.
Fire Battalion Chief Chris Reno has a refrigerated box inside his fire rig, stocked with a precious unit of universal type O-negative blood.
The pilot program Pasadena Fire joined is called LA DROP, which the LA County Fire helped launch last year.
"If you get a gunshot wound, stabbing, or anything of that nature, we get sent to those calls automatically," Reno said of the specially equipped rig, filled with everything needed to transfuse someone bleeding out.
Paramedics used this new tool for the first time on the hillside of Pasadena when a 54-year-old man was hit by a car, dragged, and left fighting for his life.
Police who responded to the domestic violence call applied a tourniquet to the man's leg, which was bleeding profusely. A Pasadena paramedic transfused a unit of blood right in the street.
"Having this, in this remote area, quickly provided, it's gotta be a lifesaver," neighbor Rick McNight said.
Pasadena Fire Chief Chad Augustin explained how patients can lose the majority of their blood volume within a couple of minutes if the wound is large.
Pasadena has two fully equipped battalion rigs, which can also meet ambulances arriving at Huntington Hospital. There, they can transfuse blood before patients even enter, saving vital minutes.
"It takes somewhere between 10 and 16 minutes on average before most trauma centers are going to be able to start infusing blood," Augustin said.
If the donated blood is not needed within 10 days, which is half of its shelf life, it's switched out at Huntington Hospital.
The department invested about $100,000 to launch the lifesaving program, with intensive training for all personnel, including EMTs and paramedics.
Augustin says data show that field transfusions, which started in the military, prevent deaths. He hopes the treatments become as routine as saving a life could ever be.
"Your life flight helicopters have been carrying blood, now it's transitioning to more common use with ground ambulances and fire departments," Augustin said.