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Deployed lab workers: lifeline for servicemembers

  • Published
  • By 1st Lt. Lisa Spilinek
  • 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq --  Blood and bacteria are seldom desired work product mediums, but they suit one group of Airmen and Soldiers here just fine.

They are laboratory technicians and their work is often behind the scenes and under a microscope lens.

While National Medical Laboratory Professionals Week ends April 26, the impact of the laboratory professionals at Balad is felt year round and extends far beyond the doors that enclose their technological offices.

There are three laboratory units at Balad AB working to provide for the well-being of the military's number one asset -- its people. Two of the laboratories fall under the Air Force's 332nd Expeditionary Medical Group; they are Air Force Theater Hospital Clinical Laboratory and the Biological Augmentation Team Laboratory.

The other lab, the Blood Services Depot, is manned by U.S. Army Soldiers assigned to the 153rd Medical Detachment. The blood shipped to this unit from blood supply centers in the U.S. is distributed by the depot's Soldiers to medical facilities throughout the area of responsibility to be used for transfusions, said Spc. Lamar Elwell, 153rd Med Det donor center operations specialist.

"We get it in from the states, keep it at the correct temperature and determine customer needs based on their average number of casualties and their storage resources," he said.

The two life-sustaining blood products that the depot receives bi-weekly are fresh, frozen plasma and red blood cell packs, Specialist Elwell said.

A major customer of the Blood Services Depot is the Air Force Theater Hospital's Clinical Laboratory, which is located just down the road.

The hospital is a Level I trauma center where the medical staff treats the full range of injured patients, including Americans, coalition forces, third country nationals and local Iraqis.

To treat all of these people and preserve the hospital's 98 percent survival rate, laboratory technicians work night and day to keep blood products supplied to those who need them, said Maj. Norman Fox, 332nd Expeditionary Medical Support Squadron Clinical Laboratory officer in charge.

When trauma patients are brought to the hospital, the lab technicians work beside the doctors receiving them to learn the patients' blood types and assess how much blood they may need. Within five minutes of taking a sample, the technicians are able to begin the process of gathering the correct blood products for the doctors to administer.

"When they bring in wounded Soldiers and Iraqis we're part of the trauma team. In a normal lab we don't do trauma work like this," said Major Fox who is deployed from Wilford Hall Medical Center, Lackland Air Force Base, Texas.

In the event that a large number of patients are brought in at one time, the technicians immediately begin thawing out additional blood products to augment what they have ready to be administered. Blood is a precious commodity; if left unfrozen will spoil after five days, Major Fox said.

A big difference between the medical laboratories at Air Force hospitals and clinics in the U.S. verses those in Iraq are the types of severe battlefield injuries and high number of serious trauma patients seen in the Operation Iraqi Freedom theater locations.

"I've been exposed to a lot of sick people and lot of blood and gore," Major Fox said. "In a regular lab we don't respond to this. We never see the patients. Here it is more personal."

Because lives are on the line, the clinical laboratory technicians know they need to work quickly. Between the emergency room and the operating room, a lot of blood is needed to keep people alive.

It isn't just the severely injured that laboratory workers are trying to protect, however.

The Airmen assigned to the Biological Augmentation Team Laboratory work daily to protect the healthy members of Balad AB. Their primary duty is ensuring bioterrorism agents, such as dangerous viruses and bacteria, are not introduced onto the base to be used against its populace, said Capt. Niki Becerra, 332 Expeditionary Aerospace Medical Squadron Biological Augmentation Team chief, deployed from Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas.

The captain and Senior Airman Adam Blagburn, a member of the Biological Augmentation Team, routinely check the food, water, soil and wildlife samples at Balad AB to ensure nothing is maliciously introduced that would threaten the lives of military and civilian workers or impact their ability to execute their missions.

"We take samples, get the results and interpret the results," said Airman Blagburn, who is also deployed from Sheppard. "We protect Soldiers and Airmen by getting results to commanders and doctors to make decisions and save people."

It's actually not quite that simple, though. Determining biological and viral threats takes sleuthing on a molecular level.

"We're kind of like 'Balad CSI,'" said Captain Becerra, who wears protective clothing, including a mask, gloves, face shield and lab coat while conducting her lab work.

When samples are taken for tests, the biological augmentation team members turn to their equipment to generate answers fast. One item that helps them is a machine that can digitally replicate the DNA found in a given sample, such as water or soil. By creating a larger sample, which is viewable on the computer screen, the team can analyze what lives within the sample without taking the time to grow a real culture.

"If we can give an answer [to commanders] within, say, two hours, that's a lot faster than growing a culture for five days," Captain Becerra said.

Regardless of whichever lab they work in at Balad, the laboratory workers understand that their work is vital to allowing mission operations to continue.

"We're behind the scenes, but we're keeping people healthy," Airman Blagburn explained.

"Definitive care comes from laboratory results," Captain Becerra said. "We try to make it as clear as possible for the doctors to make decisions and save lives."