“I didn’t know that it was such a close call with her, I didn’t know that.”
Holding her healthy two-month-old baby Rosie, Colorado Springs mom Chelsea Tuff is talking about a potentially deadly situation she and her newborn faced the day Rosie came into the world.
It was also a day that tested the UCHealth and Colorado Springs Fire Department recently launched whole blood program.
It is a first for any fire department in the state.
Tuff was full term, in what so far was a normal pregnancy.
“I was leaning over the bed, and I stood up, and I felt an internal pop,” said Tuff.
What she thought was her water breaking was instead her placenta rupturing, followed by uncontrollable bleeding.
“I got down on my knees, leaning over the bed, just to help keep the blood from gushing out. But it still kept coming.”
Crews from Colorado Springs Fire Station 11, the departments patrolling Medical Lieutenant, and AMR ambulance crews responded to the 911 call for help.
The obvious amount of blood she was losing initiated the new protocol to administer whole blood in the field.