Students, staff give the gift of life
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October 23, 2009
Filed under News, Student Council, Top Stories
Fact: Every three seconds someone, somewhere needs blood.
Fact: Eight out of 10 of us will require blood products in our lifetime.
Fact: Our community needs an average of 100 units of blood a day to take care of
patients, yet only five percent of the eligible public donates blood.
Fact: Blood cannot be manufactured, only donated.
Fact: You will save lives by donating blood.
Source: www.cbblifeblood.org
The Community Blood Bank bloodmobile visited RHS Thursday, with many students and staff participating in the donation process throughout the day. A total of 56 pints of blood were collected by the end of the school day yesterday.
Student Council has been hosting the bloodmobile for over 10 years, and they are pleased with the response from students and faculty.
“We average about 55 donors, but we have had as many as 65, which is awesome!” said Student Council adviser Mrs. Michele Jensen. “We are expecting our numbers to be a little lower today with all of the illness going around.”
In light of the recent influenza and H1N1 flu in our community, Blood Bank employees now ask donors a series of questions to determine if an individual as been sick or has experienced any flu-like symptoms in the last 10 days. Answers to these questions are ranked on a point system, and donor candidacy is then determined.
“We are very cautions to make sure everyone is fully recovered,” said Mr. Ken Versteeg, Executive Director of the Community Blood Bank.
According to blood bank guidelines, donors must be at least 17 years of age, in good general health, and weigh at least 110 pounds. One may not donate if the person has ever had the following: hepatitis, current active disease of the heart, lung, kidney, liver or stomach, cancer, or habituation to injectable drugs. Others may be temporarily ineligible is there has been any close contact with hepatitis in the past 12 months, tattoos or body-piercing in the past 12 months, major surgery or blood transfusion, and pregnancy in the past six weeks.
Donors can safely donate blood every 56 days, so if you missed out on this opportunity, the bloodmobile will be back at RHS in January and again in May.
“It is a great opportunity for first time donors to get started in a lifetime of donating the gift of life—blood!” Mrs. Jensen said.
Photo by Jacob Krienert
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