When Texas freezes over, most everything closes. That includes blood collection centers, which were closed for 5 days this week. I’m writing to encourage you to donate blood. If you’re a bottom-line person, you can skip this blog, find a donation site, and sign-up to give blood by clicking here.
For those of you still with me, this is what I saw at the grocery store last night:
There were no bananas. What does that have to do with blood donation? Read on; I’ll tell you.
Blood has four parts. First, there are the red cells which carry oxygen to the tissues in your body. Oxygen is the fuel that makes cells go. Without oxygen, cells get cold and die. When people bleed, they lose these fuel-carriers, and their body goes on the biologic version of rolling blackouts, shunting blood towards essential internal organs at the expense of less vital parts like fingers and toes. The second part of blood are white cells. These are the infection fighting cells of your immune system. Like first responders, white cells are carried by blood to the front lines of battle, where they protect you from invasion. Third, blood contains platelets which are little bits of larger cells that act like the Fix-A-Flat you put in bicycle tires. Platelets circulate in the blood looking for holes to plug, helping slow down or stop bleeding. The fourth part of blood is plasma, the liquid part. Plasma contains proteins, hormones, antibodies, clotting factors, and all the other stuff that needs to be carried from one part of your body to another.
Most people have all four parts of blood in excess, but the blood center will test before collection to make sure you will not miss the unit you donate. The unit you give is divided into three parts, so every donation helps three different people. The collected red cells are separated into one bag, the platelets into another bag, and the plasma into a third bag. The white cells collected are not used.
Red cells are like milk. They must be refrigerated, and they expire after about a month (up to 42 days). Plasma is like frozen vegetables. Once frozen, plasma can be stored for a year. But platelets are like bananas. They are stored at room temperature, and they are only good for five days. So when Texas freezes over, we run out of bananas, and we run out of platelets.
Blood bank inventories are slim during the first part of the year. After the holidays, people don’t feel like donating blood. That’s understandable, but our hospital blood banks suffer critical shortages as a result. This year is no exception; blood banks were dealing with critical shortages before the freezing weather. But two massive winter storms this week have reduced blood inventories to nearly nothing. That’s why your urgent action is needed.
There is no substitute for donated blood. There are no synthetic red cells or platelets, and there is no substitute for human plasma when it is needed. To have blood products available when you or your family need it, you must make blood available to your neighbors today. Please, your community needs your blood. Find a donation site, and sign-up to give blood by clicking here.
