Blood drives are quite the serious campaigns

ROYAL CITY - All of us should be thankful to those who donate blood and just as thankful to those who take, process and store it. For we know that some day some of us will need it.

The blood drive that occurred in Royal City recently was a tremendous success because of the more than 200 people who signed up. They produced 173 units, nearly matching the record of 180 for a single drive in eastern Washington, set in Richland.

The drive was successful also because of the numerous Red Cross volunteers and local volunteers. Many of them worked all day and well into the night. Once the blood was given, it needed to be processed and protected. Clean-up, by local volunteers, ended at about 10:30 p.m.

Royal City drive chairman Deuane Spencer and regional campaign (Mattawa, Othello, Royal, Warden) chairman Randy Pixton were beside themselves with admiration. The community surpassed the regional goal of 450 units.

Spencer was nervous one week before the draw. With 73, he was well short of the goal of 200 committed donors. Then the volunteers kicked in. He finished with 233 sign-ups.

Spencer could not have been more pleased the day of the draw. There were 25-30 local volunteers who helped with every need of the drive. The Red Cross sent enough volunteers, including eight from Portland, to handle the anticipated donation.

The local volunteers included Spencer's wife, Shigeko. She gave blood and worked 18 hours. Pixton lauded Lisa Christensen for her work and leadership among the volunteers.

This regional drive was organized and directed by the Church of Latter Day Saints. It was organized to commemorate the attack on the United States known as 9-11.

The drive was not an effort to promote the church. Pixton was nervous about people thinking that and shying away. He asked media to assure the public this was a community project.

The drive reached out to all churches, Pixton said. The New Life Fellowship Church made its building available, and members of several churches were among the donors.

New donors, who knew not what to expect, encountered a scene that could intimidate. There were gurneys, hook-ups and machines. There were cubicles, computers and more machines.

The scene could have been mistaken for a scientific lab, and Spencer saw fear, or at least apprehension on the faces of the youngest newbys. But then they saw friends and neighbors and relaxed.

Giving blood is not a matter of coming and going. It is a lengthy process that starts with registration. Then the donor goes to a waiting area, where he or she is handed literature about the process.

"Then a health history and mini physical are completed," the Red Cross's Shana Duncan said.

Sadly not everyone can give blood in today's world of AIDS, Ebola and other communicable diseases. The health history, gathered in those cubicles, disqualifies about 15 percent of donors, according to Pixton.

"You can be disqualified if you've traveled to certain countries," he said.

In the cubicle a volunteer asks some of the questions. The potential donor responds to the rest on a computer.

After the donor is accepted, about one pint and several small test tubes of blood are collected. The blood bag, test tubes and the donor record are labeled with identical bar codes to keep track of the donation.

The donation is stored in iced coolers until it is transported to a Red Cross center. Then processing starts.

Donated blood is scanned into a computer database. Most blood is spun in centrifuges to separate the transfusable components - red cells, platelets, and plasma. The primary components, like plasma, can be further manufactured into components such as cryoprecipitate.

Red cells are then leuko-reduced, Duncan said. Single donor platelets are leukoreduced and bacterially tested.

The testing is conducted parallel to the processing. The test tubes are received at one of three Red Cross National Testing Laboratories. The blood from this campaign went to the Portland NTL.

According to Duncan, a dozen tests are performed on each unit of donated blood to establish the blood type and look for any possible infectious diseases. Results are transferred electronically to the manufacturing facility within 24 hours.

"If a test result is positive, the unit is discarded and the donor is notified," Duncan said.

Test results are confidential and are only shared with the donor, except as may be required by law.

After test results are received, units suitable for transfusion are labeled and stored. Care is taken so that blood is not destroyed before in may be used.

Donated blood components have expiration dates. But, according to Duncan, there is such a high need for blood components that expirations dates rarely come into play.

According to Duncan, red cells are stored in refrigerators at 6ºC for up to 42 days. Platelets are stored at room temperature in agitators for up to five days. Plasma and cryo are frozen and stored in freezers for up to one year.

"Blood is available to be shipped to hospitals 24 hours a day, 7 days a week," Duncan said.