Southern Tier Emergency Leads to Air Ambulance Blood Law

The success of efforts to finally add New York State to the rest of the country in allowing air ambulances to carry and administer blood products is being celebrated in the Southern Tier.

Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo, State Senator Fred Akshar, Assemblyman Joseph Angelino and Greene registered nurse anesthetist Travis Flanagan, who lost both his legs this year in a farming accident and whose life was saved by an out-of-state-based air ambulance that could give him a transfusion, were on hand in Binghamton to mark the signing of the bill into law.

Lupardo said she was deeply disturbed to learn New York was the only state left that did not allow air ambulance services to carry blood or provide in-flight transfusions. The Endwell Democrat says she became a co-sponsor of the legislation after hearing Flanagan’s story.

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Flanagan acknowledged he’s here today thanks to the first responders and the fortune of having a Pennsylvania medical helicopter respond to his accident.  Flanagan says the new law makes sure someone else doesn’t have to rely on luck in a life-threatening situation.