170 students give gift of life
Katrina Thomas
Issue date: 11/17/05 Section: News
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The Student Government Association's annual blood drive brought 170 participants to the TMB on Thursday and Friday. Kati Richards, an SGA senator and chair of the Making a Difference Everywhere committee, organized this year's blood drive. "This year we tried something new. We wanted to have a theme," she said. " We did not want it to be so much like a hospital. We wanted to ease the scariness for first time donors," she added. Richards also decided to use LifeSouth Community Blood Center out of Birmingham. For some, this was a first time donation with LifeSouth. Most people are used to giving to Red Cross. Richards also said they went with LifeSouth because "they give different size shirts and they actually have Jax State on the back."
According to Talisha Williams, Donor Services Team Leader, "Most people just aren't going to give blood. You have to give them incentives". Some incentives they've given are hotdogs, drinks, chips, and door prizes. LifeSouth travels to many colleges and sets up in places from the café to the library.
Some participants have personal reasons for donating. Albertville freshman, Tara Phillips, was involved in a serious accident two years ago. She had three large lacerations on her arm. Even though she lost a lot of blood she did not require a transfusion. She says, "It's good the blood was there if I'd needed it. It's a priority to give blood whenever I can."
Jessica Pearson, a freshman from Pell City, seems anxious and nervous. She is offered an apple juice to help calm her nerves. She tried to donate last year but her iron was to low. So this was her first time giving. "I just wanted to," she said. While giving blood, she became lightheaded and the tech placed an icepack behind her head and encouraged her to sip on her juice.
People will come not realizing that they should eat and drink plenty of water. The team leader suggested that along with announcing the blood drive, promoters should let people know what needs to be done before they get there.
If a person is deferred during the screening process, they cannot give blood. Some reasons for deferrals are: tattoos, low iron, high temperature, high or low blood pressure, having been to a country where malaria is prevalent. Chewing gum before donating can raise body temperature. "The tongue is a muscle and chewing gum stimulates and works that muscle," says LifeSouth phlebotomist, Jacques McCord. "Also tongue rings can affect your temp reading if the probe is placed on the metal," she adds. There were nine deferrals on Thursday and by Friday afternoon there were seven.
All SGA senators had to work the blood drive and according to some senators there, not everyone showed up. There were some sign-in sheets for fraternities and sororities that were fairly blank except for three or four names.
The goal for this year's blood drive was to collect one hundred and fifty units. Thursday, they collected eighty-eight. Since LifeSouth is a community blood bank, the blood collected goes to the hospital or hospitals in the community it was collected. The time from collection to screening to disbursement to hospitals is three days. The blood is tested and results are reported to their home office in Florida.
Donors can view the results of their cholesterol screening at www.lifesouth.org.