Lifeblood, Mid-South Regional Blood Center, just made platelet donation a bit easier. On Thursday it started including platelet collection at mobile blood drives held inside churches, schools, business or other locations.
Previously the blood components was only collected at five of Lifeblood’s nine collection centers.
Jennifer Balink, a Lifeblood spokeswoman, said the agency decided to invest in additional equipment to make platelet collection more widely available. Lifeblood hopes to increase platelet collections 10 percent in the coming year. That would be good news to a long list of patients, including those battling cancer or facing open-heart surgery. Platelets are essential for blood clotting.
It takes about two hours to donate platelets, which has been a stumbling block for me. I have convinced myself I don’t have the time. Ridiculous, I know, but despite being a regular blood donor and understanding the need for platelets, the time commitment has me stumped.
I would love to hear from regular platelet donors about how wrong I am.
January 31st, 2008 at 12:00 am
I donated platelets today. Lifeblood came to my school, Horn Lake High School. When the nurse told me how important platelet donations are and how they help save so many lives, I couldn’t wait to donate. It took a little over an hour, but given the fact that I was able to save a life or even more than one life, makes it worth every second that it took. I would do it again in a heartbeat, no questions asked. I only wish I had more information on available times to donate. I gave blood in August too, and just knowing that I was able to aid someone by just laying there for a short time makes me feel a sense of pride and accomplishment. I appreciate the fact that there are people who donate dozens of times. A counselor at my school, Barbara Townsend, had donated around 50 times. Those types of people are the heroes of this world- the people who are willing to help whenever and how ever they can. That is how I want to be.
Thank you,
Nick Watkins
Horn Lake High School