Plymouth Opens Veins and Hearts:

Plymouth State University students and members of the Plymouth community were invited to participate in the Red Cross blood drive held in the Hage Room upstairs in the HUB on Oct. 14 and 15. The basic features of participation in the drive include registering, health history and physical overview, the extraction of blood (typically one pint), and the storing of the blood into test tubes. Donated blood is then stored, the arm of the participant is patched up, and they go about the rest of their day after having first stopped by the hydration and snack table to replace lost nutrients.

What happens at the blood drive itself is no secret, but most blood donors are unaware of exactly where their blood ends up, or the handful of reasons why it is needed in the first place. There are emergency situations every day such as accidents and disasters that are irrefutably categorized as priorities. “The Red Cross must collect an average of 700 units of blood per day to supply the hospitals we serve,” says Mary Brant, the External Communications Manager of the Red Cross, in an attempt to shed some light on the need for blood in the Northern New England Region alone. To put this amount into perspective, about 8.4 units of blood is equal to one gallon, and eight donors are needed to reach one gallon of blood. 

“Blood has an expiration date. It’s kind of like milk,” says Rob Purvis, vice president of the New York Blood Center. Platelets outside of the body can only be stored for five days, whereas red blood cells may be stored for 42. “Whole blood can be donated every 56 days, and platelets can be donated every two weeks,” says Mary Brant. Donor eligibility also plays a crucial role, and the Red Cross stresses that only five percent of the 83 percent of eligible donors in the US donate. The reasons for this lack of donation vary from medical complications to travel to, in some cases, reluctance toward the use of needles. 

This still leaves the question of where PSU and the town of Plymouth lie in all of this. The individual difference a donor makes is not typically a given piece of information, which limits the amount of gratification one can gain from donating their time and blood to the cause. The main reason people donate blood is simply wanting to help. 

Most students around PSU’s campus are not seen without some sort of device glued to their hand or in their pockets, so it may interest some of the more tech savvy to know that the Red Cross has recently developed an app for mobile devices, both Apple and Android, known as the “Blood Donor App.” This app aims to keep track of blood donations, history, and provide easy access to blood drives and appointment scheduling. This allows the user to track their own donations as well as read stories about those who were helped. If the user has given blood before, the app will track previous donations and factor them in as a total amount given over the span of a lifetime. Generations of people now have the chance to view their records at any time. In this technology-inclined era, this app brings a new level of participation throughout the entire donation process. A single pint of blood can save three lives, and the potential difference a member of the PSU community makes now lies at their fingertips. A number of PSU’s students took part in this semester’s blood drive, more than fifty had registered to donate before 1 p.m. on the second day alone.

The donated blood is transported to other hospitals and areas around the country, however the influx of blood given during a crisis or disaster focuses mainly on where it is immediately needed. Scientific studies and research require the use of blood samples to progress in their fields, and with the number of participants in blood donations currently dropping, this supply and demand based distribution creates an additional obstacle. Regardless of how much knowledge a given individual has about the subject of blood, the fundamental idea is that humans get to help other humans. Rob Dempsey, a freshman Criminal Justice major, feels the cause is justified by its simplicity. “I have a second to spare,” Dempsey said. “So why not?”

The dates for the second PSU blood drive event are already set for April 6 and 7. The Blood Donor App provides additional assistance in finding other blood drives in the area, and according to Brant, every donation matters.