CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A 4-year-old boy's life was saved thanks to the incredible folks with HALO-Flight and a new service they can now perform en route to a hospital.
The crew is now able to carry whole blood onboard each and every flight, giving critical patients blood transfusions even before they reach the emergency room.
HALO-Flight teamed up with the Coastal Bend Blood Center in order to provide life-saving blood for local patients in need.
4-year-old Mithius Alvarez almost lost his life seven months ago.
"What do you do with that call, you feel so helpless," said Mithius' father Henry Alvarez.
Mithius was at grandma's house in Mathis with his older sister Destiny. They were having fun with go-carts when the unthinkable happened -- he was in an accident.
"My cousin brought Mithius to me, and there was blood everywhere ," Mithius' mother Cheyenne Alvarez said.
Mithius' condition was bad, and HALO-Flight was called in.
"The situation was very critical. Mithius was unconscious, bleeding internally, had little blood pressure. Blood was the only thing that was going to bring him back," Halo Flight Chief Medical Officer Randy Endsley said.
The much-needed blood was readily available thanks to the air ambulance service's new pre-hospital blood program, which allows the crew to administer blood transfusions onboard.
"For them to supply the blood he needed for whatever his body needed at that moment, It was awesome and amazing, so grateful and really blessed to have HALO there," Cheyenne Alvarez said.
Mithius was reunited with the HALO-Flight crew on Thursday.
Mithius was the first transfusion for the crew. He was one of 29 South Texans who have benefited since the program launched in the summer of 2019.
The program now includes whole blood, which was made possible through a new partnership with the Coastal Bend Blood Center.
"A big thing was the whole blood, a special product, we do one type, the universal blood type, so it can be transfused to anyone," Coastal Bend Blood Center's Nicole Peters said.
The Coastal Bend Blood Center relies on local donors to continue the ongoing need for blood supply.
"People come and donate at the coastal bend blood center, who knows that blood can end up on a HALO-Flight helicopter," Endsley said.
Mithius is a living example of what it means to have that critical life-saving blood when it's needed the most.