The EMS company serving the city and surrounding areas just brought in a new addition: blood.
Paramedics with VMSC Emergency Medical Services will now be able to administer whole blood transfusions in an ambulance or even in someone's home.
"Patients who can receive blood within the first few minutes have a much higher outcome of surviving that incident," said VMSC Emergency Medical Services Chief Executive Officer Shane Wheeler.
Only 1% of ground ambulance providers in the country are able to do whole blood transfusions.
"What we are able to do now is bring that first 10-15 minutes of trauma center care -- where the patient is getting blood to get them stable -- we're able to bring that forward to the field and make that happen," said VMSC Emergency Medical Services Medical Director Dr. Ryan Overberger.
Being able to do transfusions on the go can buy a patient crucial time on the way to the hospital. It's a ride that takes a "lot longer" ever since the closure of Crozer-Chester Medical Center last month.
"We have at least a 20-minute ride in both directions, which would have been a 3-5 minute ride, which it would have been in the past," said Overberger.
VMSC is a nonprofit that started providing the same type of blood transfusion service a few months ago in Montgomery County. They recently partnered with the city of Chester to provide ambulance services.
"We're just really happy to have these guys, VMSC serving the city of Chester," said Mayor Stefan Roots (D - Chester).
VMSC is working with the Red Cross and the local blood bank. The EMS supply is kept in a vehicle that can catch up with any ambulance that needs it to get it to any person who needs it.
"We're trying to bridge that gap to get people extra time so we can get them quality, definitive care," said Wheeler.
All of the VMSC Paramedics in Chester have been trained on how to do blood transfusions.
Within days of having the equipment available, first responders used it, completing a blood transfusion over the weekend.