Tia Olson

Paramedic field supervisor Tia Olson with the ambulance company AMR Hartford says getting blood into trauma patients in the field rather than waiting until they reach the hospital has been a game changer.

The money from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, is going everywhere from rural Oregon to Tampa, Florida.

NHTSA says roughly 2% of the nation's 15,000 EMS agencies have pre-hospital blood programs now, but they're hoping to grow that number rapidly.

For NPR News, I'm Chris Polanski in Hartford, Connecticut.