Blood center is lifeline for servicemembers

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Brok McCarthy
  • 379th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFNS) --  Every year, thousands of units of blood and plasma are donated and sent into the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility to save the lives of servicemembers and civilians who sustain life threatening injuries. Thanks to the hard work of the four members of the 379th Expeditionary Medical Group Blood Transshipment Center, and volunteers from around base, all of these products get to where they are needed in a timely manner. 

"Our primary function is to process all blood products coming from the U.S. and to send them onward into the AOR within 24-hours of initially receiving them," said Tech. Sgt. Jacqueline Burton, BTC NCO in charge, who is deployed from Pope Air Force Base, N.C. "We unpackage everything we receive, take a temperature reading and check each unit to make sure the packaging is not broken and that it's going to be useable when it gets down range." 

The BTC staff receives 600 to 700 blood products every week, she said. The products include fresh blood, frozen blood and frozen plasma. Shipments also include cryoprecipitate which is a portion of blood plasma used to aid in blood clotting. They also are responsible for sending dry ice forward into the AOR. 

"Each fresh red blood cell and frozen red-blood-cell unit costs $325, and fresh frozen plasma and cryoprecipitate unit cost $50," said Capt. Carlos Doria, chief of the BTC, who's deployed from Travis AFB, Calif. "Each and every week, we receive and ship out approximately $190,000 to $210,000 worth of blood products and dry ice." 

In a given week, the center will receive two shipments, a smaller shipment containing mostly fresh blood that the BTC staff can process themselves, and a larger shipment which requires additional help by volunteers to make sure none of the products warm up too much. 

"We try to get about 25 volunteers to help us process the blood," said Sergeant Burton, a Bowie, Md., native. "The frozen product is harder to process because it's frozen to minus 70 degrees and it's sitting on dry ice, so the product can either arrive broken or we could break it. We have to be very careful." 

Volunteers are used on the night when the center receives its frozen products. Staff members will show them what to look for and the volunteers will spend approximately an hour looking over every unit to make sure it wasn't damaged at some point in transit. Once the volunteers are finished, the BTC staff will spend the rest of the time scanning each unit into their tracking database, sorting units by their final destination. Everything is then re-palletized and sent back to the ramp for distribution in the AOR. 

"The volunteers allow us the opportunity to process the products faster which is critical for two reasons," said Captain Doria, a Brownsville, Texas, native. "First, they ensure the frozen product's stability, and second, they help the BTC reduce the processing time by eight to 10 hours compared to if we had to do it alone. If a frozen blood product was allowed to thaw, it would only be good for a day instead of 10 years or one year for plasma and cryoprecitate." 

Most of the volunteers will change from week to week. However, some individuals help process blood on a regular basis, like Tech. Sgt. Alexander Benedict, a 379th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron Airman who has volunteered at the center 16 times out of the 17 weeks he's been here. 

"I think it's important to volunteer for this so blood and plasma can get down range to take care of wounded warriors," said Sergeant Benedict, a McGraw, N.Y., native who is deployed from Pope AFB. "There is satisfaction in knowing I'm making a difference for the people down range who are in the fight." 

Another regular volunteer, who is also from the 379th ECES, said volunteers are critical to making sure the blood products are available to servicemembers and civilians who need them. 

"There are wounded Airmen, Soldiers, Sailors and Marines down range who need blood and it's vital that we inspect it and make sure that it's not going to (leak) as soon as it thaws out," said Staff Sgt. Matthew Cruz, a Tacoma, Wash., native, also deployed from Pope AFB. "What we do seems small, it only lasts for 30 minutes or an hour, but it has a huge impact on the mission and the people." 

In addition to volunteers, the BTC staff relies heavily on people in other organizations on base to make sure the blood products make it to where they need to go. 

"The air mobility division, traffic management office, special handling, load planning and central command deployment distribution operation center are all vital to us being able to complete our mission," said Captain Doria. "Our mission is all about timing, and without those organizations, we wouldn't be able to get these life saving products to where they need to be on time."