“The primary issue with blood resupply is that it has to be maintained at specific temperatures, as do a number of pharmaceuticals including certain pain medications, and antibiotics,” Meledeo explained. “There's also been some talk of outfitting some of our combat hardware drones that are already in use with alternative payloads that would be able to supply blood, medical supplies and really just about anything, such as MRE’s, ammunition, and water” to frontline medics or service members caring for wounded Soldiers, he explained. “There’s obviously trade-offs between some of these different platforms, such as making sure that we have a vehicle that's fast, and somewhat stealthy … and has a very large battery that will be able to keep it airborne for a much longer period of time if it needs to loiter somewhere in anticipation of there being a problem,” Meledeo said. Yet using drones to resupply blood and other medical supplies will be challenging. “There are multiple off-the-shelf solutions that are being considered,” and the Defense Health Agency is funding several other innovations to optimize the ability to provide drones in the battle space, Meledeo said. Army Institute of Surgical Research at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, Texas. Adam Meledeo, a research scientist for coagulation and blood research at the U.S. “We think that drone resupply of blood and immediate-need medical products are really just around the corner,” said Dr. “I think it's going to come down to drone delivery of blood by some type of unmanned vehicle that can fly in and drop off more blood or more bullets, whatever is needed,” Shackelford said. The solution: Drones may become essential to combat medicine. Injured troops may have to remain at the frontlines for days while needing blood transfusions or other major medical care.
However, in future conflicts against a “near-peer” adversary, Shackelford said, that could be far more difficult. (Dr.) Stacy Shackelford, Joint Trauma System chief. “We were pretty reliant on medevac 'dust off' to deliver our blood,” said Air Force Col.
military controlled the skies and maintained a nearby network of medical facilities.
So, one of the best ways to save lives during combat operations is to provide blood products to forward-deployed medics and corpsmen as soon as possible.ĭuring the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, getting the needed blood products to injured warfighters was typically not a major challenge when the U.S. Blood loss or “bleeding out” is the leading cause of preventable death on the battlefield, military health experts say.
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