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Community Corner

Donating to Save Lives: A Bloody Interesting Tale

Follow New Baltimore-Chesterfield Patch contributor Dan Simons as he donates blood for the first time and see where the trail of blood leads.

It was a dark and stormy afternoon and I was ready to meet a group of people with a thing for crosses who were eager to get my blood.

No, these weren't vampires in Chesterfield. I was donating my first pint of blood to the American Red Cross over at on Wednesday.

I was inspired to donate blood after reading an and former college classmate (Go Grizzlies!). The Red Cross recently put out a notice that supplies were running low and needed people to donate.

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It was time to roll up my sleeves and give.

Testing Time

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The first thing a donor must do is sit down and carefully look over some information. A packet of reading material detailed all the things that might stop someone from donating blood, such as certain illnesses and drug uses.

Thankfully I don't have Mad Cow Disease or anything like that, so I was ready to go.

Next, a trained nurse sits down with you and asks a few questions. While they are getting your information, they do a few simple tests. They check your temperature with an oral thermometer, prick your finger to check your iron levels for anemia, and test your blood pressure.

I registered so far from anemic that you can call me Ironman. The nurse told me my blood pressure was a little high, but yours would be too if you watched that Lions versus Giants game last weekend.

The Donating Process is in the Bag

Once everything checked out, I was walked too a small table and told to lie down. With my left elbow exposed, the nurse then cleaned the area and handed me a cylindrical object to squeeze with my hand to get the blood pumping. She then constricted my upper arm and searched for a vein.

Here it comes, I thought. The dreaded needle. That searing pain of metal plunging into flesh, and the agonizing sting that would soon— Wait, never mind. It didn't hurt. The anemia test on my pinky finger hurt more than this.

Soon a line of crimson flowed from my elbow into a bag and all I had to do was lie down and squeeze.

The nurse taking my blood, Carol, explained that she had been doing Red Cross blood drives for 10 years, taking a break from her former work in a hospital. She said she wanted to take a break from the hectic pace of the hospital. Having seen enough episodes of House, I could pretend to understand.

One Donation Can Save Three Lives

It is often said that when you donate blood, you save three lives. That's because the blood they collect is separated into three groups: Red blood cells, platelets, and plasma. Each group serves their own unique purpose, and thus can be given to three different people who need each type.

Imagine for a second that your veins and arteries are the highways and side streets of your body, and your blood is the traffic on these roads.

Red blood cells are like the mail truck, they deliver goods all across the body. They bring oxygen from the lungs and carbon dioxide to the lungs. They bring water all throughout the body from the intestinal system. For me, these little guys bring a lot of caffeine from my stomach.

Platelets then are the construction crews of the veins, the MDOT of the artery. These cells act like glue and coagulate when there is a breach in the walls of the veins. Scabs from abrasions are caused from platelets clumping together to stop blood from leaking out and infections from getting in.

Plasma would then be the average person on the road. This is the liquid that red blood cells and platelets float along in. The average Joe riding down 23 Mile might not being in a delivery truck or a construction vehicle, but they are still needed somewhere. Plasma offers nutrients and proteins for the other cells in the blood.

Shipping and Receiving

The blood that formed in my body was now filling up and pint sized bag. From the corner of Hooker and Jefferson, it will be transported to a Red Cross testing center in Detroit, one of only five in the country.

From there, it will be submitted to a long series of examinations to test for different diseases, definciencies, and problematic substances. My blood is going to go through more tests than I did my senior year of college.

If there is a problem with the blood, the Red Cross will contact the donor and explain to them the situation. Your blood might not be used to save someone's life, but these safety checks could save yours.

Once it checks out, they are going to put my pint of the red stuff into a centrifuge and spin it around like some sort of life saving Ferris wheel to separate it into the three groups. Within a week of that needle going into my arm, the blood I gave will be transfused into three different people.

These people could be anyone. Someone who was just in a car accident and needs to replace lost blood. Someone going through chemo therapy and can't clot their blood like they used to. Someone on blood thinners after heart surgery and needs that extra boost in their ticker. It could even be me down the line that needs blood some day.

Good to the Last Drop

When my bag filled up, the nurse pulled out the needle and bandaged me up. My donation was complete. A pint of red hemoglobin. Two cups of crimson live saver. 473 milliliters of scarlet... all right, you get the picture. The last time this much blood came out of my body was shortly after my dad said to me "Don't play with that knife; it's really sharp."

There was a table set for people to sit down and relax before leaving. I wasn't about to pass out in front of a bunch of little old ladies who were veterans at donating blood, so I took a seat and started throwing back apple juice cans like they were free shots at the bar.

The organizer of the event is a lady named Candy Daily, whose local daycare I went to as a child. She's been organizing these blood drives for years, as blood donation is important to her. Her father once had to undergo a rare and critical operation that used an astonishing 72 units of blood in order to save his life.

The drives at Grace Methodist are scheduled so that if you donate at one drive, the next one will come around right about the time it is safe to donate blood again. For me and the other people that donated that day, this 56 day waiting period will end - and the next blood drive will happen - in January.

Once I made sure I was fine, I collected my things, went home and rested. In less than one hour, I was able to help save three lives, get a free screening of my blood for illnesses I might not have known I had, and to top it all off, as much free apple juice as I could drink. Honestly the most painful part of the whole process was removing the bandage from my elbow and taking a few arm hairs with it.

To the people who receive my blood, I'm glad I could help. I'll have some more for you early next year if you need it. If you get a sudden craving for dark beer or spicy food, you can blame that on me.

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