Posted on 03/01/2006 4:42:06 PM PST by SandRat
3/1/2006 - BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- The Air Force Theater Hospital here can do amazing things every day and is able to save lives through the hard work and dedication of the entire staff. But many of the life-saving procedures they perform would not be possible without the information and blood products the laboratory provides.
“We can usually hear the helicopters coming in with someone injured,” said Capt. Donna Fox, officer in charge of the lab. “As soon as they arrive we take three samples of their blood and perform a different test on each.”
The first test they perform is a blood gas test, which tests the amount of oxygen in the blood and the pH level. The second test is a complete blood count, which counts individual red blood cells. The lab can then determine how much blood a patient has lost. The last test is to determine how well the patient’s clotting factors are working or if the patient will need frozen plasma.
The information these initial tests provide to doctors is invaluable, but it’s not the only service they offer.
“We transfused 854 units of blood in the month I’ve been here,” Captain Fox said. “That’s about 100 units more than Wilford Hall averages in a month.”
Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, is the Air Force’s largest medical center.
The lab technicians here doesn’t usually draw and collect donated blood but they do store it for use. In extreme emergencies, however, they sometimes do put out a call for volunteers to donate for whole blood transfers.
“(Donated) blood is spun down and separated into four parts -- red cells, plasma, platelets and cryoprecipitate” Captain Fox said. “One donation can save four lives.”
Although the majority of tasks the lab does is trauma-related they also do much more.
“We do the lab work for yearly physicals for people that are here on one-year rotations,” Captain Fox said. “There are three intensive care units and four wards at Balad’s hospital, and we do the routine blood work for the patients in all of them.”
The lab also does tests for the Air Force clinic here, including throat, urine and blood cultures, and urinalyses looking for red and white blood cells and bacteria among other tests.
The lab offers all of these services despite the difficulties of working in a deployed environment.
“Supplies and dirt are the biggest obstacles we have here,” Captain Fox said. “A lot of the re-agents we use have a short expiration date, so we need to get constant shipments. And dirt is everywhere here. Our equipment analyzes things on a microscopic level, and dirt and dust can affect results if we don’t keep everything clean.”
The lab staff handles shipping for all the tests they don’t have the capabilities for here.
“Any tests we can’t do here, we package and send to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany,” Captain Fox said. “That’s about 600 tests a month.”
The lab plans to expand its capabilities in the near future, with plans to add an apheresis machine. This will allow technicians to remove whole blood from a patient or donor and separate its components. The platelets are then withdrawn and the remaining components of the blood are returned to the patient or donor.
Medical PING
“We do the lab work for yearly physicals for people that are here on one-year rotations,” Captain Fox said. “There are three intensive care units and four wards at Balad’s hospital, and we do the routine blood work for the patients in all of them.”
The lab also does tests for the Air Force clinic here, including throat, urine and blood cultures, and urinalyses looking for red and white blood cells and bacteria among other tests.
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