Months after 70-year-old Clifton Brandon’s life was saved, he said he’s doing well.
“I really didn’t think I was going to make it,” Brandon said. “It was just panic. I didn’t know what to do.”
On Thursday, he reunited with the duo of paramedics who responded to his call for help.
“I’m overwhelmed, you know,” Brandon said. “I want to thank y’all again, you know, for being there helping me, saving my life. You know, it’s really a blessing.”
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In May, first responders rushed to Brandon’s apartment in Hartford. That’s where American Medical Response (AMR) paramedics Alexander Megquier and Marnie Crosskey gave a lifesaving blood transfusion to Brandon.
“When we found him, there was blood everywhere,” Megquier said. “I thought we were actually at a crime scene.”
Brandon’s fistula, which was inserted in his arm, came out. Megquier estimates that he lost 800mL of blood.
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“Alex called for blood basically immediately as soon as he saw the patient,” Marnie Crosskey said. “Within moments of the blood being administered, he really came back to life and looked so much better.”
Megquier and Crosskey are amongst the few paramedics in the state who can administer a blood transfusion in the field. In the U.S., only 1.2% of paramedics can do this, according to the AMR.
“Hartford is one of the first 50 systems in the United States to start blood transfusions,” Dr. John Pettini said.
Pettini is the EMS medical director at St. Francis Hospital in Hartford which supplies the Greater Hartford/Northeast Connecticut AMR team with blood.
“If we bring blood out to the field, we can dramatically decrease that time to first transfusion and that’s what saves lives,” he said.
AMR said it has completed 130 blood transfusions in the field since starting the Greater Hartford program in 2020.
