Students lined up at the Taylorsville Redwood Campus last Tuesday to help save lives. ARUP Laboratories was on campus conducting a blood drive. It was reported that one pint of donated blood can save the lives of two recipients.
One pint may sound like a small amount; however, when a human body has only ten pints of blood originally, it can add up to quite a contribution.
The goal of the ARUP workers was to get 25 pints before the end of the 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. shift in the Student Center, meaning they only needed 25 donors in a five-hour period.
The first step to donate was to fill out a simple information card and answer questions regarding a variety of medical needs, medicines and medical history.
After completing the questionnaire, a phlebotomist took donors into a private area to record blood pressure, heart rate and iron levels.
Unfortunately, if something was wrong with any of the performed tests, donors were not eligible to participate in the drive. This was the case for SLCC student Liz Prathan.
Prathan, member of the American Chemical Society (ACS) club that set up the blood drive, was unable to continue past the phlebotomist because her heart rate was too high.
“They only test you twice and she did it again and it was 112. [It was because] You’re making me think about it,” Prathan said.
Student Deborah Dyson was unable to donate because she got a tattoo less than a year ago. ARUP’s rules state that one cannot donate until a year after the tattoo is completed. However, Dyson is no stranger to blood donations, having donated twice before receiving the tattoo.
“I have family members who need blood transfusions – so I do it because of that,” Dyson said.
Once the pre-screening is passed, a large needle is inserted into the donors arm. Donors are then given a stress ball and instructed to squeeze in order to increase blood blow. The average time it takes to harvest one pint of blood is from seven to eight minutes, but no longer then 15 minutes.
After the phlebotomist is done collecting the blood, they advise donors to sit down for 10 minutes while putting nutrients back in the body with juice, water, snacks, etc.
Trisha Fox, one of the specialized phlebotomists working for ARUP, said the benefit of donating to ARUP as opposed to a paying facility is that they go specifically to hospitals and burn victims. Fox said the plasma and platelets go towards burn victims, newborns, and blood transfusions, to name a few.
“When you donate plasma [to paying centers], it’s the same process – but those centers, they sell your plasma to [companies that produce] products like lotions or conditioners…or they sell it for research. That’s why they are able to pay for it,” Fox said.
Blood donations collected through ARUP go to the Huntsman Cancer Institute, IHC (Intermountain Healthcare) Hospitals and the University of Utah Hospital, to name a few.
ARUP also has a busy schedule of when and where they will be taking donations on their web site. For more information about where your blood goes to, why it’s important to donate and where you can go to donate, visit utahblood.org.