By Patrick DeLaney/American Red Cross

The American Red Cross mission travels to every corner of the United States—from bustling cities to sedate towns, sunny shores to snow-covered bergs. Yet our life-saving blood doesn’t just travel by road; at this very moment, it could be soaring high above, crisscrossing the skies on its way to someone in urgent need, delivered by our Air Methods helicopter crew partners.

Since 2020, the Red Cross has partnered with Mercy Air, who operate nationally under the umbrella of Air Methods, the largest air medical emergency transport service in the country. This partnership ensures blood products are available on their urgent care helicopters and allows Red Cross to meet the patients’ urgent needs. To date, over 400 life-saving transfusions have been completed for critically injured patients in California using blood donated by Red Cross donors.

To best tell this story of partnership, we introduce Ernie Montelongo, a Red Cross volunteer Blood Transportation Specialist who delivers blood products across Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties in a Red Cross transport van. His deliveries take him to hospitals, clinics and to Mercy Air helipads. The second link in this partnership is the crew of flight nurses, like Jon Shoemaker, who receives and processes the blood delivered by drivers like Ernie, ensuring that each Mercy Air flight is fully stocked with life-saving blood.

Part I: Meet Ernie Montelongo

Having worked in the water treatment industry for thirty years, volunteer Ernie Montelongo is no stranger to answering the call of duty at any time of the day. After retiring, he found himself looking for something to do with his free time. On the encouragement of his family, he decided to volunteer with the Red Cross and subsequently took on the role of Blood Transportation Specialist. 

Montelongo began volunteering around the same time the Red Cross partnered with Air Methods. Once Montelongo became aware of the Wednesday weekly deliveries of blood to and from Air Methods locations across Southern California, he found himself hitting the many highways. 

Deliveries often begin for Montelongo from a Red Cross distribution center, like the Betty Bazar Blood Center in Pomona. From there, he travels to Mercy Air facilities including Twentynine Palms, Victorville and Fullerton. While his blood product deliveries include large hospitals and care centers such as the Children’s Hospital LA and City of Hope facility in Duarte, the Mercy Air deliveries hold a unique charm for Montelongo.

Montelongo was drawn to the unique experience of delivering blood to helipad-equipped locations. He remembers thinking, “That’s pretty cool, I’ll take those!” He explained further, saying, “I kind of just wanted the experience of seeing where the helicopters were. So here I am going to Twentynine Palms, where I got to see the Marine base there.” 

Regardless of the location, Montelongo’s deliveries are always met with gratitude from the receiving technicians.

Montelongo takes his cheerful demeanor with him on every transport trip, but never loses sight of the importance and urgency of the work he is doing. Some days, he must undertake multiple trips back and forth across city and county lines, all with different levels of urgency and with some deliveries require a daring level of improvisation to reach recipients with the needed urgency. 

A few years back, when making a “super stat” (very urgent) delivery to the Riverside Community Hospital, Montelongo came upon a long line to sign-in, behind many others in the patient admittance area. “I knew where the lab was, so I cut out of the line and went straight to the elevator to get to the lab.”  

The lab director was extremely thankful to receive the delivery from Montelongo, explaining to him, a patient was waiting on the operating table in urgent need of the blood. At the same time, other hospital staff who were not so happy with Montelongo’s actions, “When I came back down the elevator, security was waiting for me!”

That instance aside, Montelongo remains in his lane and enjoys hitting the road to save lives. Some days his deliveries may contain only one or two boxes, each containing twenty packets of blood surrounded in thick layers of dry ice. Other times, deliveries can be much larger containing up to thirty boxes of blood units. Since these transport runs are done solo, Montelongo not only transports the blood product boxes, but also unloads them at the receiving facility. 

Once Montelongo delivers his precious cargo, he loads up any unused blood packets and returns to the blood distribution center in Pomona. Once in Pomona, his task is done and he awaits the next delivery call for live-saving blood. 

Stay tuned for Part II—how Red Cross partners get blood to the critically ill.

About the American Red Cross:

The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides comfort to victims of disasters; supplies about 40% of the nation’s blood; teaches skills that save lives; distributes international humanitarian aid; and supports veterans, military members and their families. The Red Cross is a nonprofit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to deliver its mission. For more information, please visit redcross.org or CruzRojaAmericana.org, or follow us on social media.