Saving a life: it is in your blood

As the new school year rolls in, students associated with Miami Palmetto Senior High School’s Leo Club spend their time squeezing through tables in the Pawvillion and taping the walls of the school with fliers to advertise their first blood drive of the 2015-2016 school year. With the chaos of rounding up volunteers, the effort comes back to the original purpose of a blood drive: saving lives. Working with the non-profit organization OneBlood, Palmetto has been able to make this purpose a reality.

According to Pablo Fernandez, a donor recruiter of OneBlood, a patient in the United States in need undergoes a blood transfusion every two seconds and more than 38,000 blood donations are needed every day. One donation alone can save the lives of up to 3 adults. Palmetto’s own Leo Club hosts 5 blood drives every year and about 120 students donate a pint of their blood at each event. Recently, Leo Club was awarded with the title of “Donated Most Pints of Blood in the Southern District of Florida” ending with a total of 644 pints, which equates to almost 200 lives saved.

Donating blood proves beneficial for both the receiver and donor. According to OneBlood, by donating a pint of blood, a donor loses 650 calories and decreases their risk for heart disease, heart attacks, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and prostate cancer. Blood viscosity is significantly reduced during donation, eliminating iron that may possibly oxidize in your blood. The removal of oxidative iron from the body also means reduced cardiovascular diseases. During their contribution, a donor gets a free checkup on their iron levels, a cholesterol evaluation and a mini physical test. Oneblood then gives all the donated blood to 250 hospitals in South Florida.

“There’s about 3% male donors, and 97% female donors,” Fernandez said. “It’s more efficient for men to donate [because] men have no additional way of losing blood like women do.”

Unlike women, men do not experience monthly blood loss, meaning that they never generate new blood. Donating blood can be compared to a personal oil change. Out goes the old blood, and in comes the new.  

Two years ago, an ex-Palmetto student in his junior year donated blood at every chance. Unfortunately, his father was afflicted with cancer and the disease continued to progress. With  his father receiving daily blood transfusions, multiple times everyday, the student would donate every 56 days just to keep his father alive.

“People like us are out there struggling in the sun, in the rain, just to get people to donate blood so that other people, like that boy, can enjoy their dad for one more week,” Fernandez said.

Donating blood requires a four step process: registration, mini-physical, questionnaire and finally, donation. Giving healthy blood also earns the donor community service hours while giving back to their community. With one out of four people needing a blood transfusion at some point in their lifetime, the cause is not likely fade away anytime soon.