‘The need for blood is real:’ A paramedic reflects on his own life threatening emergency

By Jennifer Costa, regional communications director

“The need for blood is real. I was a LifeFlight paramedic for seven years. We administered blood in the helicopter – and it saved lives.” 

Ed Moreshead, paramedic

Over his 40-year career as a paramedic, Ed Moreshead has seen his share of medical emergencies. He’s also witnessed the lifesaving power of blood donation. The memory of a 12-year-old boy sticks with him most. 

“In this case, if we didn’t have those two units of blood for that patient, he wouldn’t have made it. And now I can say, I walk in his shoes.” 

In February, as Ed was coming off a 48-hour shift as a paramedic in Jackman, Maine, he started to feel sick. His symptoms got worse as the night when on.

“I got up a few times and I was very dizzy. I fell down once. I’m not one to complain, so I didn’t say anything to my wife who was sleeping. In the morning, she got up and went to work,” Ed said.

From there, things went downhill quickly. Ed passed out on his way to the bathroom. When he came to, he pulled himself into bed and call his wife for help.

“I said, ‘I think I need an ambulance.’ And when I said that she knew it was very serious. I’ve been a paramedic and EMT for almost 40 years. I’ve never been a patient in the back of an ambulance before,” he said.

It took emergency room personnel just minutes to diagnose Ed with a gastrointestinal bleed from a duodenal ulcer in the first part of his small intestine. He remained in intensive care for five days. 

Ed in the ICU, March 2023

“It was really quite serious,” said Suzanne Moreshead, Ed’s wife. She’s a nurse currently serving as a hospital administrator in the area. She remembers thinking the worst when visiting hours ended and she was forced to leave her husband’s side.

“I was fairly certain that first night that I was going to get a call in the middle of the night telling me that Ed had passed away,” she said.

Although a healthy, active adult, Ed has a heart condition that requires him to be on a blood thinner. 

“Sixty-one years ago, I was born with a heart defect. I was born with an aortic valve that was bicuspid and not tricuspid,” Ed explained. 

This means his valve, which controls the flow of blood from the left ventricle to the aorta, only had two flaps instead of three. It can be years before this causes a problem, but once a valve shows signs of leaking or narrowing, the heart must work harder to pump blood – and can lead to heart failure.

“When I was 32, I had an aortic dissection. It was an aneurysm. It was serious and I had open heart surgery. At the time they replaced the aorta, they also replaced the valve with a prosthetic metal valve,” he said. 

That was in 1994. Ed has needed a blood thinning medication ever since, but it never interfered with his active lifestyle until the GI bleed earlier this year.  

“I bleed easily now,” Ed explained. “So the doctors had to shut that off.”

While in the ICU, the medical team worked feverously to put him on a combination of drugs to help his blood clot while also ensuring he didn’t die from a clot off the heart valve.

“You’re robbing Peter to pay Paul, which I think was very frustrating for the intensivist,” Ed said.

Ed received an astounding 10 units of whole blood – about the volume of blood the average adult has in their entire body.

“If the blood hadn’t of been there, I would have died. I would have died, probably in the first couple of days. I would not have made it five days,” he said.

Every two seconds someone in this country, just like Ed, needs blood. It cannot be manufactured. In fact, lifesaving blood can only come from generous donors who volunteer to roll up a sleeve. For Suzanne, that need came full circle when it was her own husband’s life on the line. 

“When I have donated, it’s always to that anonymous person who really needs it more than me,” she said. “A lot of people who donate blood are donating it to this anonymous need – or they donate because there is a shortage, but they don’t ever think that they are going to need it. Certainly, in our careers, we take care of other people. But here’s the time, we needed it. You just never know.”

Blood can take up to three days to be tested, processed and made available to patients, so it's the blood already on hospital shelves that helps save lives in an emergency. This time of year is traditionally hard on the nation’s blood supply. Seasonal illness, winter weather and the upcoming holidays often lead to lower appointment numbers and decreased donor turnout, making it hard to keep up with the constant demand for blood products.  

Ed Moreshead, June 2023

“It’s really important that people realize that the shelf has to have blood on it,” Ed said. “Unless people donate blood on a regular basis in our area, the blood may not be there for someone who really needs it – and someone will die if the blood is not there. It isn’t a ‘what if?’”

Ten months after his brush with death, Ed is healthy and doing well. He’s back to work, exercising and tending to his farm. Suzanne has transitioned from a Red Cross volunteer to a board member for the Northern and Eastern Maine chapter – a cause that has grown increasingly close to her heart following her family’s near tragedy.

“It’s the mission. It’s why I chose to be a Red Cross volunteer. And it’s why I am a board member now. It’s my way of getting back to my roots in nursing. What inspires me is taking care of people – and the Red Cross does it better than anybody. I couldn’t think of volunteering anywhere else quite frankly.”  

Give the gift of life this holiday season. Consider making an appointment to donate blood. Your gift may help patients spend another holiday with their families. Visit: https://rdcrss.org/blood.