Out For Blood
Sam Sallick
I am asking you to donate blood, to be a good Samaritan, to help someone in need. Imagine a future where you or someone you care deeply about needs blood, but the hospital has a limited supply, or they don’t have the specific type of blood that person needs. This very well could be a real future at some point, especially during the age of COVID. The ongoing pandemic, as well as the rise of natural disasters due to the Climate Crisis means that blood shortages are going to be an ongoing problem. Every time there’s a natural disaster or our movement is restricted due to lockdowns, blood shortages follow because it is harder to get to the place where you donate blood due to either closures of blood banks, bad conditions on the road or whatever the case may be. It is especially pressing in the winter, for example after the Texas storm, the Red Cross has announced they are starting to experience shortages of blood. If you or someone you love needed blood, would you think it was acceptable for the hospital to tell you that there is no blood available now. Often getting people transfused in a timely manner is the difference between life and death. Back in March, when the shock of Covid fully enthralled our nation and the world, blood banks closed which led to blood shortages that were so dire that doctors were warning of fatalities due to patients not getting the blood they need. More than 80% of blood banks were closed temporarily (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/21/us-blood-donations-shortage-coronavirus). While the situation isn’t as dire as it was last march, the same thing will happen the next time something that forces closures of blood banks, unless enough people donate before the unforeseen happens.
Things like donating blood may seem distant and something you can leave to other people, that’s what I thought, until I needed blood myself. In 2019, I was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma, a rare type of bone cancer that requires an intense chemotherapy regimen that causes anemia. The only way to contain that in any way whatsoever was blood transfusions, specifically hemoglobin and platelets. Without that infusion of blood, I would have been at a far higher risk of sepsis and other nasty blood infections. There were a lot of patients who need blood even more than I did and in a much timelier manner than I needed it. While the recovery from low blood counts would have been far slower and likely more painful for me, it wasn’t a life-or-death situation where without the transfusions I would have died. The same can’t be said for many other patients, such as crash victims, people who got shot or stabbed or other cancer patients. For them getting blood as quickly as possible is a matter of life-or-death and your blood could be the difference.
At this point I am sure many of you are asking ‘what can I do’ or something along those lines. And that is what I am going to be telling you guys. Most of the people that are seeing this are based out of either Washington, DC or Denver, CO, so I am going to focus specifically on the process for DC and Colorado. If you live elsewhere, the red cross website is a great resource, and they have information for each state (https://www.redcross.org). For the DU students and other Denver residents the closest blood bank I could find to the DU campus is the Bonfils Blood Center (717 Yosemite Street, Denver, CO 80230). It is open from 7 AM to 7 PM every day except Wednesday’s, when it is open from 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM. Unfortunately, there are a lot of hoops to jump through to get approved to be a blood donor. For the DC folks, there is a place on 1730 E Street NW Washington, DC 20006 (https://www.redcrossblood.org/local-homepage/location/washington-d-c--american-red-cross.html). The hours are in the link.
I wouldn’t be able to succinctly list all of them here so here is the link to the Red Cross eligibility requirements (https://www.redcrossblood.org/donate-blood/how-to-donate/eligibility-requirements/eligibility-criteria-alphabetical.html). There are also state level regulations, for example in Colorado, I don’t think people with tattoos are eligible to donate, while in DC you just must wait three months from when you got the tattoo. That one may apply for some of the people reading this. I know for a fact that I am unfortunately ineligible due to my cancer treatment and the number of transfusions and by doing this I am trying to do my part even though I can’t donate my own blood. If you are unable to donate there are still things you can do. For one you can donate to the Red Cross, or if you are feeling really inspired and want to go above and beyond, you can host a blood drive (https://www.redcrossblood.org/hosting-a-blood-drive/learn-about-hosting/how-hosting-a-blood-drive-works/apply-to-host-a-blood-drive.html). The information on that is in this link here. There are multiple types of blood donation, which you can explore in this link (https://www.redcrossblood.org/donate-blood/how-to-donate/types-of-blood-donations.html).
I am out for blood; will you give some to preserve a better future for people in need?
