The Armed Services Blood Program is the military's only blood donor program for service members, their families, retirees, veterans, and local communities worldwide, helping those in critical need. Both whole blood and COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma from those who have recovered from COVID-19 remain in high demand. All 21 donor centers adhere to CDC guidelines to reduce the spread of COVID-19.
There's an art, a science, a system, and a network to the military's collection, storage, and dissemination of life-saving blood products. Behind it all, though, are human hands drawing red blood cells, plasma, and platelets from willing human arms.
"I feel like there can always be more of us," said Angelica Kuper, a civilian phlebotomist and an apheresis lead technician at the Fort Bliss Blood Donor Center, part of the William Beaumont Army Medical Center in El Paso, Texas. "Especially right now that we have so many different kinds of projects going on with COVID-19 convalescent plasma, and platelets ... we can always use more help."
Kuper was referring to the many workers like her, civilian and military, who are on the front lines of the Military Health System's global blood distribution grid. Her specialty, apheresis, is the procedure that removes whole blood from a donor or patient and separates it into individual components (such a platelets or plasma). The remaining components are then put back into the bloodstream of the donor.
Phlebotomists draw blood for tests, perform blood transfusions, conduct research, and run or assist with blood donations.
"We all work toward the same mission," said Air Force Staff Sgt. Michelle Longoria-Fisher, a medical laboratory technician at the Armed Services Blood Bank Center (ASBBC) at Joint Base San Antonio, Texas.
The center is part of the 59th Medical Diagnostics and Therapeutics Squadron and is a sort of large clearinghouse for blood products. Longoria-Fisher said she is part of a team of about 65 who draw blood; perform interviews of donors; test the blood; filter it; and ship it — east, west, and overseas. The ASBBC performs some 800 tests per day on blood for at least seven combatant commands.
She anticipates training as a phlebotomist in the future, but currently works in the "component room" of the donor center.
"I get the units that have been drawn, and I make them into the different components and then we ship them out to wherever they need to go," Longoria-Fisher said. "We'll get the whole blood and then we'll filter it [to eliminate white blood cells] and spin them down at high speeds to get the plasma and the red cells to separate. We'll get two units from that one donation."
In the component room with three civilians and five other techs in uniform, some are new to the job, like Longoria-Fisher, who arrived last August after volunteering for special duty there. A five-year veteran of the Air Force, she was previously stationed at Travis Air Force Base, California.
"Not a lot of lab techs get to experience donor center work," she said. "Previously I was working on the transfusion side of things, so it's great I get to see the making of units for those transfusions.