West Valley City is set to become the first Utah municipality to provide real blood to those who need it.
The blood will be administered to victims injured in traumatic events and in danger of bleeding out before they even get to a hospital.
“Countywide, it takes about 45 [minutes] to an hour from [emergency medical services’] arrival to potentially receiving blood,” West Valley City Fire Department battalion chief Brandon Howard said during a recent City Council meeting. “... Where someone can bleed out in minutes, an hour is just too long to receive blood. So, we’re hoping that this will lower that time so people don’t go into decompensated, irreversible shock so we can get them to a surgeon to save their life.”
Throughout Utah, patients in need of blood in the field are often treated with what’s called crystalloid fluid, an artificial substitute. The substance can temporarily help those with traumatic injuries, but is inferior to the real thing, said Howard, who runs the department’s medical training and ambulance services arm.
The program will function as a partnership with Intermountain Health. The hospital system will provide the blood at no cost to the Fire Department. West Valley City usually takes its major trauma patients — who would receive this type of care — to Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, Howard said.
The goal is to keep more people alive and reduce the incidence of disabilities caused by traumatic injuries. Getting patients blood earlier means they also need less of it, thereby keeping more blood available for others, Howard said. Council members voted unanimously Oct. 14 to back the blood transfusions.
“For patients with massive bleeding, seconds matter,” said Dr. Dave Morris, Intermountain Health trauma surgeon and associate medical director of trauma surgery at the Murray hospital. ”This program extends a lifesaving resource into the hands of our EMS teams so that we have a better shot at providing definitive care in the hospital.”
About 200 agencies nationwide offer a similar program, Howard told the council, but none of them is in Utah. He indicated the cost of getting and maintaining blood is the key barrier to administering it before patients can get to a hospital.
The department anticipates giving blood to residents — who otherwise wouldn’t have been able to get it right away — about once or twice a month. A battalion chief on duty will be responsible for carrying a special cooler stocked with enough O-positive fluid for one person at all times.
“I’m highly impressed you guys came up with this,” Mayor Karen Lang said. “When I was reading the [meeting] packet, I was mind-blown.”
Training for the use of real blood has already been underway in the city with crews learning how to administer it — a similar process to putting in an IV. Howard also said the department has been practicing with the cooler for two months and had yet to encounter any issues with it. The department received its first unit of blood Wednesday, city spokesperson Sam Johnson said.
The cooler can run unplugged for up to four days, allowing emergency medical workers to administer the blood in an ambulance while driving to the hospital. The city and Intermountain Health will swap out the blood weekly to ensure its freshness.
Howard said that bleeding out was the leading cause of death for those suffering from traumatic injuries.
“You can’t treat death,” he said.
Clarification • 1:15 p.m., Oct. 26, 2025: This story has been updated to better reflect why most patients who receive this care may be transported to Intermountain Medical Center.