"I can't donate blood - I need all the blood I have." I think a Tufts football player told me that one last year, as a response to my imploring him to sign up to be a blood donor at the winter blood drive. That wasn't the first time I had heard that excuse, and I'm sure it won't be my last.
It's sad to be in my position sometimes, watching people squirm when I ask them to donate blood. You can see the guilt in their eyes as they try to form excuses, and I listen as they say something like, "I'm afraid of needles" or "I have a friend that fainted once, so I'm not interested." Then, without fail, they make a mad dash past my table into Dewick. To anyone who has ever given me an excuse like those above: your selfishness will soon be exposed.
Here are some facts: New England is currently in the midst of the worst blood shortage in eight years. The demand for blood rises (demand for this past July was 2.4 percent above that of July 1999, while August's demand was 14 percent greater than August 1999) as the crop of willing blood donors dwindles (over the past three years, one million fewer people have donated blood).
When you or I donate a pint of blood, that blood is separated into several parts. Surgically speaking, red blood cells are the most important (they carry oxygen throughout the body), which are used during heart transplants, tumor removals, anemia treatment, and on victims of automobile accidents, cancer patients, and for much more. Platelets, which are responsible for blood clotting, are crucial for hemophiliacs, open-heart surgery cases, leukemia therapy, and bone marrow transplants. Plasma, which maintains blood pressure and carries important enzymes and nutrients, is used for liver transplants, and aneurysm and burn victims.
One pint of blood can help save the lives of five babies born prematurely. To that football player from earlier: you have 10-12 pints of blood in your body. When you donate only one of those, your body regenerates the missing fluids in 48 to 72 hours. Did you say that the needle hurts? Well, about 95 percent of people that live to the age of 72 will need a blood transfusion at some time in their life, yet only 5 percent of the eligible population donates blood.
To translate those numbers locally, at the last blood drive in April, 150 units were collected, out of 5,145 possible students on the Medford campus. That means that only 2.9 percent of our socially-conscious campus donates blood! Indeed, to factor in those people ineligible to give, the number is probably raised to the pitifully small 5 percent national average. On a campus that boasts of its community service participation, the turnout at our blood drives is poor.
I hope that you don't simply ignore the blood drive when it comes around next week. Although I know how easy it is to just brush it off and say, "I have no time," both you and I know that simply isn't true. Not to be able to make time to save a life is the ultimate manifestation of selfishness. To find out if you meet the eligibility requirements, visit www.newenglandblood.org.
To those of you who have signed up to donate at our Fall Blood Drive, make sure your experience is a positive one by getting a good night's rest and eating a satisfactory meal beforehand. And to the rest of you, stop with the weak excuses, and I'll never have to watch you squirm and look away again.
