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| Mark McKenna/ The
Times-Standard |
| Lynn
Parker-Smith donated her 200th unit platelets on
Thursday at the Northern California Community
Blood Bank in Eureka. Parker-Smith has been
donating blood since October
1989. |
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EUREKA -- It wasn't until Lynn Parker-Smith's father fell
seriously ill and received a series of blood transfusions that
she saw the need for blood donors.
”He had unit after unit (transfused) and, at some point,
you start to wonder where it all comes from,” she said last
week while sitting in one of the leather reclining chairs at
the Northern California Community Blood Bank with a needle in
her left arm and a blanket draped over her legs.
As the needle pumped blood out of Parker-Smith's body, she
explained that donating platelets is what she does every other
Thursday. On a table behind her sat a white cake with yellow
frosting that the blood bank staff had made to celebrate this,
her 200th donation. Over the last 17 years, Parker-Smith has
given 24 gallons of her blood to help others live.
John Gullam, the blood bank's director of donor resources,
said most donors, like Parker-Smith, simply don't donate until
the need for blood touches the life of somebody they love.
”I think, intellectually, people know it's a need,” he
said. “But, until it hits close to home they might not really
understand it. You know, people are busy. They have bills,
jobs and lives.”
Like Parker-Smith, Gullam has seen that need personally. He
watched his 20-month-old daughter, Molly Fitzgerald, go
through open heart surgery, requiring transfusions of red
blood cells. He also knows the statistics.
Gullam knows that a single car accident victim can require
up to 40 units of red blood cells, that a cancer patient can
receive 20 to 30 platelet units during chemotherapy to aid
with clotting and that a liver transplant requires 20 combined
units of red blood cells, platelets and plasma. He knows that,
because donated blood is separated into red cells, platelets
and plasma, a single donation can save as many as three lives.
He also knows that the blood bank needs 60 to 70 blood
donors daily to meet the demands of local hospitals and that's
where he comes in.
Gullam and his staff make sure people on the blood bank's
donor list know when they are eligible to come in and, perhaps
more importantly, they try to make sure donors want to return.
”It all comes back to the donor experience,” he said. “We
need to get people in, but we really need to keep them coming
back and the best way to do that is making sure they're
comfortable and by building relationships.”
Ensuring comfort in a situation where somebody is about to
stick a needle in your arm isn't always the easiest of tasks
but, Gullam said, it is one of the blood bank staff's strong
suits. Parker-Smith, who said she considers herself as being
pretty wimpy when it comes to blood and sharp objects,
admitted to getting nervous on each of her 200 visits.
”I've never seen them put the needle in my arm,” she said.
“I mean, who could watch that? I'm always nervous, but
everyone here is so wonderful. If you're nervous, they take
care of you.”
While a little nervousness is normal, Gullam said, a sense
of perspective is very important.
”Put yourself in the place of the person who needs the
blood,” he said. “(The prick of the needle) is pretty minor
compared to a major burn or cancer.”
Though some people feel lightheaded or a bit dizzy when the
needle goes in, Gullam said these reactions are few and far
between. Donor Care Specialist Heather Smith said even these
bad reactions still don't keep some people from donating.
”We have some troopers out there who just keep coming back
even though they know they don't do well,” she said.
McKinleyville resident Charles McCann said donating has
never bothered him, nor can he remember it ever really
hurting. McCann, who has donated 151 times since starting in
college, is a part of the minority that donates despite never
having had a loved one in need
of blood products.
For him, it's simply a matter of faith.
”I'm a Christian and it donned on me one day that Jesus
shed his blood for me and that I could use it to help others
in need,” he said.
While Gullam said the bank appreciates and needs long-time
donors like McCann and Parker-Smith, he said the constant
challenge is finding new ones.
”We need 3,000 first-time donors a year to offset people
who have become ineligible either through illness or travel,”
Gullam said. Because the blood bank does not advertise or
cold-call people who haven't given blood before, finding these
donors can be difficult.
”We don't do advertising because we really do want to keep
the one-to-one, face-to-face relationships,” he said. “Our
philosophy is that people donate because they are asked.”
Gullam said another thing that keeps people coming back is
knowing their blood is needed. He added that 99 percent of the
blood donated is used, with 60 percent of it going to local
hospitals and the balance being sent out to the blood bank's
partners in Santa Rosa, Sacramento and Stanford University
School of Medicine. He said exporting blood helps ensure that
blood products, many of which have limited shelf lives, are
used to help someone in need. The exports also help pay the
bills for the privately owned, nonprofit blood bank.
”Because of the population in the area and the overhead,
there isn't enough need in the area to support a blood bank,”
he said. “Selling to other areas allows us to stay in
business. Also, people donate because it makes them feel good
and people need them. I don't think so many would donate if
they thought it was being wasted.”
Because 20 percent of the blood bank's donations come from
drives at local high schools, Humboldt State University and
College of the Redwoods, summer is a critical time for the
blood bank.
”August is really a time when a lot of people are on the
road, out of town or just busy,” said Gullam. “If we could
just add one or two donations to each blood drive, we would be
in great shape. We'd love it if, at every drive, somebody
would bring a friend who has never donated before.”
Though there is a long list of things that could possibly
make people ineligible for donating blood, Thomas Schallert,
the bank's administrator, said 60 percent of the population is
eligible and he urges people not to make assumptions but to
just come in and find out if they are eligible to donate. He
also suggested that those interested in donating visit the
blood bank's website, www.nccbb.org, for more information and
a bloodmobile schedule.
First-time donors can expect to spend 20 to 30 minutes
filling out paperwork and going through the screening process,
about 15 minutes actually donating and another 15 minutes
drinking juice and eating cookies before leaving the blood
bank or bloodmobile. All in all, the process takes about an
hour.
In the hustle and bustle of every- day life, an hour can
seem like a lot of time. But, as people like McCann and
Parker-Smith realize, that hour could mean a lifetime to
someone else -- someone like Molly Fitzgerald.
The Times-Standard will sponsor a blood drive from 10 a.m.
to 3 p.m. Sept. 12. A bloodmobile will be on-site at the
Times-Standard office, located at 930 Sixth St. in Eureka, and
blood bank staff will be available to meet with both
first-time and return donors. | 
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