By Misty Cryer
January is National Blood Donor Month. President Richard Nixon, through proclamation, originally set January of 1970 as the month to honor voluntary blood donors and encourage people to donate in response to a senate joint resolution. Fifty-five years later, the observance continues. In Carlsbad, opportunities to donate blood are offered regularly throughout the year.
“Our sole purpose is gathering blood donations that feed directly into our hospitals and clinics,” said Paul White, Account Manager with Vitalant, a nationwide company that holds local blood drives. “Everything that we collect here in New Mexico goes to hospitals and clinics in New Mexico for patients needing blood transfusions,” he said.
Vitalant is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. “We rely on private donations. We also get some funding from federal sources because our products go into the national blood supply or the state blood supply—in this case, for New Mexico. It is pretty rare that we end up sending any blood out of state,” he said.
“Each blood donation can save up to three lives,” said White. “There are common situations where someone might need an actual donation. It is used more often than you think, and it is one of the only things we can’t replicate in the lab, so it is literally up to us to help each other,” he said.
White explained the types of products that come from blood: platelets, plasma, and red blood cells. “Typically, a whole blood donation, which we call a standard red blood donation, they can pull platelets out of it, or it can be used for whole blood transfusions,” he said. “Then there is what we call a power red donation, which actually separates the donation—red blood cells, the plasma, and the platelets—to be used separately,” he said.
Blood donations are shipped to the processing center in Albuquerque where they go through a gamut of tests and quality control checks before they are put into the inventory to be sent to hospitals, White said. “We get an updated list constantly.”
Before donating, he said, a couple of small tests are done to ensure that the donor is eligible to donate. “When you come in to donate blood, they want to make sure that your iron levels are at an appropriate level for you to donate. We don’t want to have a donor donate blood and then feel bad afterwards,” he said.
“They also type your blood, so you get to know what your blood type is, and once they get done with all the testing in Albuquerque, all those test results go privately into your own account,” said White. He explained that the donor can access the results through the Vitalant app or online. “It’s like a little mini, free physical,” he said.
The location of blood drives can also be found on the Vitalant app or online at https://donors.vitalant.org/dwp/portal/dwa. “We have several locations where we do blood drives there in Carlsbad,” said White. Locations specifically mentioned include Walmart, Southeast New Mexico College, Top Nock Archery, Carlsbad Medical Center, Carlsbad Rotary, WIPP, Albertsons, and Western Commerce Bank.
“We do contests and giveaways throughout the entire year,” he said. “Everybody who donates from the 8th (of January) through the end of the month will be entered in to win one of two $5,000 gift cards,” he said. He added that they give away t-shirts, stress squeezers, and other fun stuff on a regular basis, in addition to snacks provided at blood drives to be sure donors are fed and hydrated.
Top Nock Archery at 2101 S. Canal Street is hosting the next Vitalant blood drive on Saturday, January 11, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
“We have been trying to keep a six-week schedule going because we know how much the community needs it,” said Jennifer Cottingham, co-owner of Top Nock Archery. “It is a shame to have such a nice facility and not host the drives,” she added.
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