Blood transfer center essential to mission

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Bryan Bouchard
  • 379th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) --  Six Airmen deployed to an air base here are the lifeline of Operation Iraqi Freedom -- literally and figuratively. For them, receiving, monitoring and shipping blood products is a sobering, but motivating responsibility.

“People’s lives depend on the accuracy of our job performance,” said Staff Sgt. Amanda Geisert, noncommissioned officer in charge of the blood transshipment center.

The center’s Airmen receive and inspect shipments of blood products, maintain the stock, and finally repack and ship the blood to wherever it is needed within the U.S. Central Command’s area of responsibility.

The blood products are shipped from a processing laboratory at McGuire Air Force Base, N.J., said Capt. Jessica Fritz, officer in charge of the center.

The center’s Airmen only process and arrange to ship blood; they do not collect it. They said they often receive calls from people wanting to donate.

“We aren’t a blood donation center,” Sergeant Geisert said. “But it’s nice to see that people want to donate blood.”

Once a shipment arrives, it is up to the Airmen, who are deployed from the 6th Medical Group at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., to inspect each unit, whether it is red blood cells, fresh frozen plasma or cryoprecipitate. They must track all blood products from the time they ship them out until the customer receives them at the gaining unit. This is to ensure accountability, said Senior Airman Happy Sanchez of the center.

The Airmen come from different areas of the medical community, and they play their own unique part in the process of handling more than 600 units of blood products weekly.

“We get unbelievable support from the load planners, special handling and contracting. Without their help, none of this would be possible,” said Staff Sgt. Derrick Vankampen, a medical maintenance technician.

Senior Airman Manuel Ortiz, a medical logistician, said upholding the standard by which all the blood products must be treated is what keeps the Airmen busy here.

“No one has died in the (theater because of) the lack (of) blood,” he said.

If a forward location shows a shortfall of blood products, Captain Fritz said she and her crew can pull together and have a shipment readily available to be sent out almost immediately.

What really keeps this team of medical-support experts focused on the mission is their teamwork and shared responsibility. Senior Airman Lisa Perregil, the group’s health services management technician, said that although they have different medical backgrounds, their teamwork and work ethic combine to form a solid working foundation.