Authorized newspaper of Fort Lewis, Washington
Saving a Soldier’s life can be as simple as donating a pint of blood — and with the Armed Services Blood Bank Center Pacific Northwest in its new facility at the Madigan Annex, saving Soldiers could not be simpler.
The Armed Services Blood Bank Center, which is part of the Army Blood Program, takes blood donations from service members, dependents, federal employees and contractors and supplies blood products down range and to regional military hospitals.
“Our primary mission is to provide blood for those Soldiers deployed in theater,” said Calvin Elkins, the facility supervisor. “That’s mission number one — it takes priority and precedence over everything.”
The need for blood is so great in theater that, when she was deployed, Sergeant 1st Class April Summers, NCOIC for the center, had to get the deployed service members to volunteer to donate blood just to meet the demand.
“Our mission has kind of picked up to get blood into theater for OIF, OEF and everything else,” Elkins said. “It’s kind of been some tough times because the need for blood has increased significantly.”
Donors can make appointments over the phone or online to donate. The center also has mobile capabilities. Blood drives can be set up at any federal government building for anyone who has access to post. Family readiness groups, military units and civilian staff can all request a mobile blood drive.
The center also collects platelets through apheresis, a process by which whole blood is taken out of the body then spun and separated by a machine. The platelets go into a bag and the donor gets the plasma and red blood cells back, Summers said. The platelets are then used by Madigan Army Medical Center. Platelets help to clot the blood, so they are used in procedures like cancer therapy and open heart surgeries. Platelets cannot be refrigerated and are only good for five days, Elkins said.
“And if we don’t collect it here within the military community, we have to purchase on the outside,” Summers said. “We are using a lot of our own people because we can’t find other people to come do it.”
The center has the added challenge of multiple deployments to contend with when recruiting blood donors, Elkins said.
“There are a thousand restrictions put upon any donor,” Elkins said. “What’s very unique to being a military donor center, we have some extraordinary challenges.”
Service members who have been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan must wait one year before they are eligible to donate blood again. “With deployment after deployment, it kind of keeps them out of the mix,” Elkins said. “Those individuals that are eligible are the people we need to focus on.”
To set up a mobile blood drive for your office, unit or family readiness group, call Victor Shermer the center’s blood donor recruiter at 967-1903. To set up an appointment to donate blood or platelets, call 968-1850 or visit www.militaryblood.dod.mil. The Armed Services Blood Bank Center Pacific Northwest is located in building 9904, behind the Madigan Cafe in the Madigan Annex.
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