MDSS Lab: more than just blood
By Senior Airman Jared Duhon, 436th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
/ Published September 29, 2014
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. -- The 436th Medical Support Squadron laboratory mission is to ensure Team Dover is healthy.
The lab is a multifaceted operation dealing with more than just blood and feces. The five-person team keeps busy monitoring Airmen for a variety of maladies.
"We collect samples and we run the test or ship them out," said Master Sgt. Ken Kramer, 436th MDSS NCO in charge lab services. "We evaluate urinalysis testing, but we also can test for cholesterol, electrolytes blood sugar, prostate cancer and pregnancy. We also have the microbiology which can grow bacteria to test for strep."
The laboratory runs tests on patients for doctors informing them if their suspected diagnoses are true.
"Doctors send their patients to us because they rely heavily on our results," said Kramer. "We provide doctors with important data daily to ensure they can keep everyone healthy and fit to fight."
To provide those tests, technicians must collect samples.
"We typically draw blood on about 400 people a day," said Senior Airman Taylor Altrichter, 436th MDSS medical laboratory technician. "We also receive about five fecal samples and between 10 and 30 urine samples a day."
The lab at Dover has microbiology capabilities which takes cultures from wounds, urine or throat lining and grows the bacteria in them on special plates.
"My job is to find what bacteria are in the cultures," said Staff Sgt. Louise Sargent, 436th MDSS NCOIC microbiology. "The cultures grow allowing us to see what is going on inside of the person who we received them from."
The lab is a vital cog in keeping Team Dover healthy.
"Doctors can't do their job accurately without us," said Kramer. "They have to have us to be able to get that accurate reading, because if they can't do their job, then the Air Force's most advance warfighting machine breaks down."