Have you ever thought about how you can save a life? Have you thought about your future in the medical field or as a firefighter, because that’s the only way you can save lives? Well I’m here to tell you that you don’t need to be a doctor, firefighter, or even a police officer to save a life. You can be a simple bystander on the street living a normal life and you can still save lives. What I’m saying is you can save lives by donating blood. The blood that courses through your veins is your ticket to being a lifesaver. By simply donating a pint of your specialized blood, based on your blood type, you can save up to three lives. Every single drop of blood is used to save people like you and me. Donating goes a long way and you don’t have to worry about running out because you’ll always reproduce it over time.
If you decide to donate today, you’ll receive some great benefits. It is said that with donation you are likely lowering your chances of heart and liver diseases. According to Phillip DeChristopher, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Loyola University Health System blood bank, “if blood has a high viscosity, it will flow like molasses.” By donating every two months, or as many times as you can, you are likely to increase blood flow and decrease your chances of having a heart attack. As stated in the American Journal of Epidemiology, blood donors are 88% less likely to suffer a heart attack. Along with decreased chances of heart disease, regular donors are more likely to reduce their chances of getting hemochromatosis, excess absorption of iron in the body. You also get a free mini physical prior to donation so that’s a plus. Why worry about expensive doctor visits or insurance paperwork when you can go donate blood and get a check up for free. Not only with all these great health benefits from donating, you also feel a sense of achievement. You feel like you made a difference with your pint of blood. Like mentioned before, one pint of blood can go a long way for people who are on the verge of dying.
When donating blood every donor, whether you are new or returning, you must go through the donation process. First, you have to register. Donation staff will sign you in, providing some type of ID, and discuss eligibility with you. You are then given some material to read regarding blood donation. Next, you are called back and given a mini-physical. During this exam, you have your temperature, blood pressure, pulse, and hemoglobin levels tested. According to the American Red Cross, all donors, male and female, must obtain a hemoglobin level of 12.5 g/dL. After you have been deemed as a healthy, eligible donor you are brought to the great chair of donation. During the actual donation process, your arm is cleansed with iodine and stuck with a new sterile needle. On average whole blood retrieval takes about 10-15 minutes. Once a pint bag has been filled with your red blood cells, you are bandaged up and ready to be on your way. But before you head out the door you are advised to stay and enjoy some refreshments provided by the donation crew. They encourage you to stay for 20 minutes because there are cases where donors have felt faint and they want to make sure you regain your energy. The donation process isn’t so daunting as some people may make it to be.
As you may or may not know there are four different types of blood donation. The most common is whole blood donation. Whole blood donation is when they draw a pint of blood from you. Once the pint is separated, 45% is red blood cells, 55% is plasma, and less than 1% is platelets. The blood bank also has the option to create cryoprecipitated AHF with your plasma by simply freezing it and thawing it out slowly. Cryoprecipitated AHF is rich in clotting factors which helps prevent catastrophic bleeding in surgery. Another type is power red donation. An apheresis machine is used during this donation. Your blood goes throught the machine and you’re given back most of your plasma and platelets. During this donation you are able to donate two units of red cells. Not everyone can be a power red donor. With power red donation, donors must meet a higher hemoglobin and weight/height requirement compared to whole blood donation. This donation is available at most donation centers and at some blood drives. The third type is platelet apheresis. With this donation, you are just giving the blood bank your platelets. During this process, the blood that is being drawn goes through a machine that separates your red blood cells, plasma, and platelets. The machine, similar to the one used for power red donation, only collects your platelets so your red cells and plasma is returned to you. Platelet donation is vital for cancer treatments and organ transplants. This donation usually lasts up to an one and-a-half to two and-a-half hours. The last type is plasma apheresis. This is collected along with the platelet apheresis. After the blood has been separated into the three components, red cells and/or platelets are returned to the body and plasma is kept to be tested by the blood bank and then sent out to whoever needs it. This donation usually takes about one hour and 15 minutes. These last two donations can only be collected as certain American Red Cross Donation centers.
Along with different donation types, there are different blood types. There are four different blood types: A, B, AB, and O. Everyone is classified as either one of this blood types, and as positive or negative as well. So there is ultimately 8 blood classifications: A+ ,A- ,B+, B-, AB+, AB-, O+, and O-. The rarest blood type is AB-, which is only 1% of the U.S. population. The most common blood type within the U.S. is O+, 38%, and A+, 34%. Along with having a certain blood type, you can either receive blood from any donor or donate to any recipient. Type O is considered to be the “universal donor,” so everyone can receive from you. Type A is to be considered as the “universal recipient,”which means they can receive any blood type. A+ donors can donate to A or AB positive population whereas A- donors can supply the A, AB+ and A, AB- population. This is also the same for B+ and B- donors. Lastly, AB+ donors can only supply AB+ patients whereas AB- donors can give to AB+ and AB- patients.
Now you must be thinking, “Why do all these people decide to donate? What’s in it for them?” When asked about the donor’s motives when it comes to blood donation, they simply say, “I just want to help out.” The most common reason for people donating is they just want to give back. They want to do a simple act of kindness that doesn’t even cost a penny. In a study published in 2002 by Simone Glynn, she used a survey conducted in 1998 about peoples’ motivations to donate blood. The survey had a total of 92,581 responses. Of the 92,581 only 52,650 responded. 45,588 out of 52,650 were whole blood donors. When WB donors were asked why they donate, “75-87% of them gave altruistic answers and 34-43% were aware of the need of blood.” A majority of the surveys population gave blood because they wanted to give back to their community. Altruism is one of the main reasons people donate, but another reason is the blood drive offers donors an incentive to come and donate. You see it all around the community, especially with the younger generation. If an organization or club is offering free t-shirts, food, or gift certificates, you know that people will show up because they don’t have to pay for it. Now if the blood drives made it more known that they are offering incentives, they will get more donors. A way to make it known that blood drives are offering incentives is by releasing a mass email or a letter. If donation centers call rather than send emails, recipients will more than likely ignore the phone call because they don’t have to talk. But by sending that email out, the recipient can read it and find out more information about the blood drive if they were interested. As stated in Glynn’s research, 59-63% said they would donate more if they received a reminer from blood bank via letter or email.
Donating a pint of blood every two to three months you are likely to reduce your chances of heart disease and you’ll feel good about yourself. Donating is a vital element in the medical field. Without donors, patients will be dying left and right because blood donation would be scarce and we would have to give blood to those who really need it. If you do not want to witness a loved one or other innocent patients get passed up on a blood transfusion, then take some time out of your day and donate today. Be the difference you want to see in the world by donating today.
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Bibliography
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Cicetti, Fred. “What’s the Most Common Blood Type?” 13 July 2012. Live Science. Web. 23 Oct. 2016. <www.livescience.com/36559-common-blood-type-donation.html>
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Glynn, Simone. “Motivations to for donating blood: demographic comparisons.” U.S. National Library of Medicine. Feb. 2002. NCBI. Web. 23 Oct. 2016. <www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11896338>
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