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I found this article an interesting read.........
Canadian troops going to Afghanistan tested to be 'walking blood donors'
By SHERYL UBELACKER
TORONTO (CP) - For the first time since the Second World War, Canada's military is testing soon-to-be-deployed troops so they can act as "walking blood donors" in the event of mass casualties or special transfusion needs for their wounded comrades in Afghanistan.
Almost 500 soldiers from Ontario's CFB Petawawa who are preparing to leave for Afghanistan this summer volunteered to have blood drawn late this week under an agreement with the Canadian Blood Services, which will type and test the samples for donor eligibility, the agency told The Canadian Press on Friday.
Almost 250 soldiers from Edmonton were tested in January and the military is in discussions for a similar troop-screening arrangement with Hema-Quebec, which looks after blood donations in that province.
Once in Afghanistan, authorized soldiers could be called on to donate blood in an emergency, which could then be transfused immediately into an injured colleague. An adult can donate one unit of blood every 56 days.
Currently, Canadian medical personnel in Afghanistan have only 80 units of frozen blood on hand. Depending on the severity of injury and the type of blood required - for instance AB or O-negative - even one wounded soldier could put a serious dent in that supply.
Indeed, a severe injury of a Canadian soldier in northern Afghanistan a couple of years ago - before the current mission near Kandahar - required 26 units of blood. The soldier was transfused with blood from the U.S. military, which has long had a walking donor program, said Col. Maureen Haberstock, director of health services operations.
"It's these sort of cases where you might want to have some additional insurance, although they're extremely rare," Haberstock said from Ottawa. "The lesson learned here is that it's a capability that's rarely used but is useful in very special circumstances and as insurance for mass casualty situations.
"We're not doing this because we don't think we have enough blood; we've planned for that," she said, adding that since the Kandahar mission began in January, "we've had enough for all the casualties we've had so far."
"It's something that I think the soldiers in the chain of command are very much behind because for obvious reasons they want all the insurance they can have going over there as well."
Cpl. Adam Read, a member of support services, didn't hesitate to sign up to become a blood donor.
"I think it's a fantastic program that they started up," the 31-year-old, married father of two from Barrie, Ont., said Friday from CFB Petawawa, near Ottawa. "I think it's a program they should have had in effect for previous tours - but no other tour's like the one we're going on now."
Read, who was in Kosovo in 1999 and Bosnia in 2003 -2004, will ship out to Afghanistan in August for a tour of at least six months. About 2,200 troops in the Petawawa-based battle group will travel to the insurgency-torn country in July and August to relieve an equal number of soldiers and support staff from the current mission.
"I feel that if a soldier's going out and putting his life on the line - and I know for myself if I'm on the table and someone's going to give me their blood - then I should do the same to a fellow soldier."
Ian Mumford, chief operating officer of the Canadian Blood Services, said his agency provided the staff to draw blood samples from the soldiers, which its labs will then test for such diseases as HIV, hepatitis C and West Nile virus.
The agency, whose origins began with blood-banking for the Canadian Forces during the Second World War, has also trained three nurses and two laboratory technicians to draw blood from donor soldiers in Afghanistan, Mumford said.
The Edmonton and Petawawa soldiers, who all volunteered to be donors, were asked to provide the same health information as any civilian donor and their blood is tested for the same diseases, he said. "These troops are being treated exactly as if they were regular blood donors here in Canada."
All information is kept strictly confidential, unless something turns up in the blood that would make a soldier ineligible to be a donor. In that case, military medical personnel as well as the individual would be informed.
Canadian Blood Services is absorbing the $30,000 cost of blood testing for this deployment and the costs of any missions in the future, Mumford said. "We are funded by taxpayers and it is our view that taxpayers would expect us to provide this service to the Armed Forces.
"What we're providing really helps ensure that Canadian troops that are posted abroad are getting the same high standards of blood products that they would if they were here in Canada."
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2006/06/09/1623323-cp.html
Canadian troops going to Afghanistan tested to be 'walking blood donors'
By SHERYL UBELACKER
TORONTO (CP) - For the first time since the Second World War, Canada's military is testing soon-to-be-deployed troops so they can act as "walking blood donors" in the event of mass casualties or special transfusion needs for their wounded comrades in Afghanistan.
Almost 500 soldiers from Ontario's CFB Petawawa who are preparing to leave for Afghanistan this summer volunteered to have blood drawn late this week under an agreement with the Canadian Blood Services, which will type and test the samples for donor eligibility, the agency told The Canadian Press on Friday.
Almost 250 soldiers from Edmonton were tested in January and the military is in discussions for a similar troop-screening arrangement with Hema-Quebec, which looks after blood donations in that province.
Once in Afghanistan, authorized soldiers could be called on to donate blood in an emergency, which could then be transfused immediately into an injured colleague. An adult can donate one unit of blood every 56 days.
Currently, Canadian medical personnel in Afghanistan have only 80 units of frozen blood on hand. Depending on the severity of injury and the type of blood required - for instance AB or O-negative - even one wounded soldier could put a serious dent in that supply.
Indeed, a severe injury of a Canadian soldier in northern Afghanistan a couple of years ago - before the current mission near Kandahar - required 26 units of blood. The soldier was transfused with blood from the U.S. military, which has long had a walking donor program, said Col. Maureen Haberstock, director of health services operations.
"It's these sort of cases where you might want to have some additional insurance, although they're extremely rare," Haberstock said from Ottawa. "The lesson learned here is that it's a capability that's rarely used but is useful in very special circumstances and as insurance for mass casualty situations.
"We're not doing this because we don't think we have enough blood; we've planned for that," she said, adding that since the Kandahar mission began in January, "we've had enough for all the casualties we've had so far."
"It's something that I think the soldiers in the chain of command are very much behind because for obvious reasons they want all the insurance they can have going over there as well."
Cpl. Adam Read, a member of support services, didn't hesitate to sign up to become a blood donor.
"I think it's a fantastic program that they started up," the 31-year-old, married father of two from Barrie, Ont., said Friday from CFB Petawawa, near Ottawa. "I think it's a program they should have had in effect for previous tours - but no other tour's like the one we're going on now."
Read, who was in Kosovo in 1999 and Bosnia in 2003 -2004, will ship out to Afghanistan in August for a tour of at least six months. About 2,200 troops in the Petawawa-based battle group will travel to the insurgency-torn country in July and August to relieve an equal number of soldiers and support staff from the current mission.
"I feel that if a soldier's going out and putting his life on the line - and I know for myself if I'm on the table and someone's going to give me their blood - then I should do the same to a fellow soldier."
Ian Mumford, chief operating officer of the Canadian Blood Services, said his agency provided the staff to draw blood samples from the soldiers, which its labs will then test for such diseases as HIV, hepatitis C and West Nile virus.
The agency, whose origins began with blood-banking for the Canadian Forces during the Second World War, has also trained three nurses and two laboratory technicians to draw blood from donor soldiers in Afghanistan, Mumford said.
The Edmonton and Petawawa soldiers, who all volunteered to be donors, were asked to provide the same health information as any civilian donor and their blood is tested for the same diseases, he said. "These troops are being treated exactly as if they were regular blood donors here in Canada."
All information is kept strictly confidential, unless something turns up in the blood that would make a soldier ineligible to be a donor. In that case, military medical personnel as well as the individual would be informed.
Canadian Blood Services is absorbing the $30,000 cost of blood testing for this deployment and the costs of any missions in the future, Mumford said. "We are funded by taxpayers and it is our view that taxpayers would expect us to provide this service to the Armed Forces.
"What we're providing really helps ensure that Canadian troops that are posted abroad are getting the same high standards of blood products that they would if they were here in Canada."
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2006/06/09/1623323-cp.html
) wondering what you could be getting yourself into.
