While it is not everyone’s lifelong dream to have a needle shoved into their arm and a pint of their blood drained out, donating blood is a very important action that most anyone can take to better his or her community.
Each unit of blood that a donor gives can help save three lives, as the blood is divided into red blood cells, platelets and plasma; each part has a specialized job that it performs, and all three parts can be given to different patients.
Donating blood is a lifesaving outreach that can easily be performed by many members of the community, but unfortunately, barely anyone actually does it. According to the Mayo Clinic, only five percent of those who are eligible to donate actually do, which is an astounding low figure.
People complain about apathy for the Presidential election voting, but those numbers are usually around 40-50% of eligible voters. Now, admittedly, giving blood is a bit more painful than punching a ballot, but it is still a disturbing sign of how the majority of society either does not understand the importance of donating blood or they cannot be bothered to get off their couches and do it. There over 300 million citizens in the country, and 4.5 million of those Americans would die each year without blood transfusions; up to 32,000 pints of blood are used every single day in the United States alone, which makes it important for donors to donate not just once or twice, but as often as they can.
The blood supply is something that must be replenished and refilled constantly, or it runs of risk of not being able to provide for those who need transfusions (especially in emergency situations). Even though donors can give blood every two months, if all eligible blood donors gave just two times per year, it would almost completely alleviate blood supply shortages.
One of the problems, however, is that red blood cell donations must be used within 42 days of its donation time, or it becomes unusable. This is one of the reasons that consistent contributions of blood are necessary for the survival of the blood supply, and, to be honest, the survival of millions of people who depend on the blood bank to provide life-saving donations.
Often, people will cite the fact that they don’t know what is required to donate blood or that they are not eligible to donate, but the requirements are actually not as difficult as society makes them seem.
Anyone in good health (more on that in a minute), 17 years old or older and weighing at least 110 pounds is allowed to donate blood. While “good health” can be considered a subjective term, there are a number of conditions or situations that will prevent someone from donating, such as having any sort of blood disease and foreign travel to restricted countries in the past year (usually South American countries limit the donor’s chances to give blood the most); recent tattoos or injuries that may have resulted in contamination of the donor’s blood with outside metals may also limit his or her chance to donate. Also, the donors must not be on certain types of medications (especially those that alter the blood chemistry, such as coumadin or warfarin, which are blood thinners).
Of course, on top of the number of screenings that donors must go through, once the blood is taken, it will be tested at least 14 times, for various diseases, to ensure that it is safe.
On top of objective and statistical reasons to donate, I can also speak from personal experience as to why blood donations are so important.
For my six open-heart surgeries, I have had so many pints of donated blood that I have almost lost count. During my most recent surgery, in spring 2006, I had to receive over 14 pints of blood. Since I only had seven pints donated from direct donors, I had to rely on the blood bank supply for the remaining blood. Without a standing supply of blood donated by the community, I would have been in serious trouble.
Donating blood might be a bit uncomfortable for the people sitting in the chair squeezing the little squishy ball, but that short lack of comfort could, quite literally, mean the difference between life and death for someone that is in dire need of a blood transfusion to save his or her life.
