After a crash, can blood reach you in time?

After a truck cut in front of a motorcycle in Pueblo, Colorado, on Sept. 4, 2025, paramedics found John Mazanec bleeding heavily and he wasn’t answering his phone. Alicia Raebel was grocery shopping when an alert called about the crash. With the program having launched just eight days earlier, UCHealth reported that blood was brought from the ambulance company’s base and his transfusion began en route to the hospital—something he said likely saved his life. Nationally, ImageTrend’s 2026 EMS Insights Report documented 1,695 crash patients receiving blood before hospital arrival in 2025, but America’s Blood Centers estimates only 1% to 2% of EMS agencies stock blood. TRICARE will test a 2027 model paying separately for blood products and transfusion services.