From the Lab to the Battlefield, Donations Save Lives

05/16/2012
By Erin Hawkins, ASBP Blood Donor Recruiter, Fort Gordon, Ga.

Army 1st Sgt. Pablo Cadena of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 67th Signal Battalion, required multiple blood transfusions and a new femur after being injured in Afghanistan's Wardak Province.

For 1st Sgt. Pablo Cadena, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 67th Signal Battalion, donating blood was always a part of being in the Army and a good thing to do, maybe even earning him a little time off as a young soldier. But in June 2008, his relationship with blood changed from donor to recipient after an ambush sent a rocket-propelled grenade into his vehicle during a mission in the Wardak Province of Afghanistan.

Then Sgt. 1st Class Cadena was a platoon sergeant with the 101st Airborne Division’s 506th Infantry Regiment—the same unit featured in the book and miniseries “Band of Brothers.” They were checking on another platoon in that sector when they came under fire, first from the driver’s side of the vehicle. Cadena, following protocol, had jumped out to retrieve a 40mm grenade ammunition belt that had fallen off the turret and hand it up to the gunner. One of Cadena’s soldiers had jumped out also, and as they ran around the passenger side of the vehicle, they were ambushed with an armor-piercing rocket-propelled grenade.

“It went right between us,” Cadena said. “When I got hit, I kind of took a few steps back and fell. I looked down at my leg and just saw black, and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s not good.’”

There was a medic present, but he was attending to the other soldier, who had been at the front of the vehicle when the explosion came. “He sustained more wounds than I did,” Cadena said. “He had a collapsed lung, and burns and lots of shrapnel.” The gunner was thrown clear, and all of the other soldiers had been able to get out of the vehicle.

Cadena lost consciousness, but remembers waking up with a couple of his soldiers, crouching at his head and feet, still actively engaged in the firefight while attending to his injuries. The medic assisted, going back and forth to the other injured soldier.

“My guys threw on the tourniquet and did everything they were supposed to do. It saved my leg, saved my life,” said Cadena.

Immediate blood transfusions were necessary to keep Cadena alive, as the hit to his left leg had blown off part of his femur and caused severe bleeding. When he was stable enough to be moved out of Afghanistan, he was evacuated to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, then to Fort Campbell, Ky., and finally, to the Brooke Army Medical Center, now called the San Antonio Military Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston, Texas.

Nine days after his initial injury, Cadena was in Texas awaiting a cadaver femur and a complete leg overhaul. He doesn’t know exactly how much blood he received, but he knows he was transfused at each stop along the way, at first to stop the threat of dying from blood loss, and later to allow a series of surgeries for him to keep and use his leg.

Donations to the Armed Services Blood Program from donors like Marine Corps Pfc. Kevin Vance, who began donating in boot camp and during School of Infantry training, are vital to saving lives of service members like Cadena. At a recent drive with the United States Marine Corps Detachment on Fort Gordon, Ga., Vance completed his third blood donation for his fellow service members.

“I think it’s important because you know where the blood is going. It’s going to be used by someone who needs it,” said Vance.

Blood, in addition to being in daily demand in our military hospitals, is a critical component of military readiness. However, to get a unit of blood from a donor like Vance to a recipient like Cadena takes many hands working together in a process that is both complex and extremely efficient.

Soldiers and civilians from Fort Gordon’s donor center travel the southeastern United States drawing blood at military installations and college ROTC programs. The center is one of the Department of Defense’s busiest; in addition to conducting drives at Fort Gordon and other bases during the week, they spend most weekends collecting blood at Fort Jackson, S.C., and Parris Island Marine Corps Recruit Depot in Beaufort, S.C. The blood collection itself is only part of the story. There is also plenty of action taking place to make sure the blood is tested, processed, and shipped safely to its destination.

Capt. Wendy Adamian, chief of blood services at the Eisenhower Army Medical Center, has been with the Armed Services Blood Program for more than 20 years, both in donor centers and transfusion services, and she knows the mission of getting the right blood products to those who need them well.

“The Armed Services Blood Program is a tri-service program with representatives from the Army, Navy and Air Force, and has many components working together as a team to collect, process, store, distribute and transfuse blood worldwide. We rely heavily on teamwork amongst the services and the dedicated donors who support us,” said Adamian.

Although the team at the Kendrick Memorial Blood Center at Fort Gordon is made up mostly of medical laboratory technicians, it also includes a diverse group of medical technicians, phlebotomists and medics. When the units of blood arrive back at the donor center, the components processing team begins centrifuging them, separating them into two of the three main components needed to save lives—red blood cells and plasma (platelets are collected separately through a process known as apheresis).

Quality assurance experts review the paperwork, blood types, and testing results to ensure each unit of blood is safely and correctly labeled before releasing the units to be shipped. Red blood cells and frozen plasma are promptly shipped to the Armed Services Whole Blood Processing Laboratory to be sent into theater, as well as to military hospitals to care for service members, veterans, retirees and their families. All of this is extremely thorough, yet takes place within just three days of donation to ensure the freshest possible products onto shelves, where blood banking specialists get them to patients in need.

The blood products that saved Cadena’s life, and his leg, flowed from the Armed Services Blood Program. Through the Armed Services Blood Program, donors can directly help save the lives of service members and their families, from battlefield injuries like Cadena’s, to the daily needs of military hospitals for surgeries, accidents and cancer treatments.

Each link in the chain is vital to ensuring safe blood products are available when and where needed. It is truly a team effort to be proud of, and it is a process Cadena appreciates in a very powerful way.

“Without blood, I wouldn’t be here,” he said. “I wouldn’t be able to see my kids grow up.”

To find out more about the Armed Services Blood Program or to schedule an appointment, please visit us online: www.militaryblood.dod.mil. To interact directly with some of our staff, see more photos or to get the latest news, visit us here: www.facebook.com/militaryblood, www.flickr.com/militaryblood and www.twitter.com/militaryblood.