By Elizabeth Cavin Staff Reporter<\/p>\n
Imagine this: Nine months pregnant with your second child and recently released from bed-rest, you receive an urgent call that your unborn-child\u2019s great-grandmother has recently been rushed to the hospital. Her aorta ruptured behind her heart and she\u2019s now in emergency open-heart surgery. All you can think is: This is it, she\u2019s going to bleed to death, we are going to lose her. The family is losing its matriarch, your husband is losing his beloved grandmother and your unborn child will never have the chance to know this amazingly lovable woman, her great-grandmother. That\u2019s what happened to Melanie Eyler in November 1992. During the surgery, Eyler knew 67-year-old Dorothy (Dot) Fincham would need a lot of blood to stay alive and avidly hoped enough was available. Blood can be donated all over the country, including Hood College, where Eyler regularly donates blood as an advisor to the Hood Ionic Society, Hood\u2019s official blood drive coordinator and administrative assistant to the Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students. Historically, \u201cthe Hood College Ionic Society has partnered with the American Red Cross to host campus blood drives going back to at least the 1990\u2019s,\u201d said Eyler via email. Hood College, overall, has hosted approximately 61 drives in the last 20 years, recruiting a total of 1,760+ donors from such, according to Eyler and her statistics from the American Red Cross (ARC) website. However, Eyler\u2019s statistics also show there\u2019s been a steady average decrease in units of Hood blood collected in the past four years. In the February 6, 2014 blood drive a total of 65 units were successfully collected. Since then, the average number has kept dropping. In January 2017, there were 43 units. In April 2017 and February 2018, 19 units each. And this last April, only seven units were collected.\u00a0 But why are fewer people donating? What is the blood used for anyway? What are the risks, if any, with donating life-saving blood? And what happens when someone donates life-saving blood? Blood donations are not only used in surgeries, but also to help cancer patients during chemotherapy treatment, sickle cell patients, and newborns, according to the ARC website. Because of blood\u2019s many uses, the need for donations (especially with Type O negative blood) are in constant demand according to the ARC website. In fact, \u201cevery two seconds someone in the U.S. needs blood\u201d and \u201cless than 38 percent of the population is eligible to give blood.\u201d There are benefits specifically for the blood donors (not just the blood recipients). For example, the ARC website says donors receive infectious disease testing. Donors get this service because \u201call donated blood is tested for HIV, hepatitis B and C, syphilis and other infectious diseases before it can be released to hospitals.\u201d Another benefit on the website comes from the fact \u201cthe number one reason donors say they give blood is because they \u2018want to help others,\u2019\u201d because knowing one donation can save up to three lives can be a benefit in itself. So what can interested donors actually expect? In short, Eyler said all \u201cpotential donors are screened prior to every donation\u2026they must read through pre-donation materials and answer health history questions, and their temperature, blood pressure and iron level are checked.\u201d She also said, \u201canyone considering donating, especially if they have never donated before and\/or are nervous about the process, should access the American Red Cross website\u201d in order to be as prepared as possible. Interested donors should also note Hood\u2019s upcoming blood drive dates. Eyler wrote \u201cthe Hood College Ionic Society will once again partner with the American Red Cross to host three more blood drives on campus this [school] year:\u201d Nov. 26, 2018, Feb. 16, 2019 and April 16, 2019. All three drives are scheduled during the day, from 12:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. in Whitaker. Did Dot survive her openheart surgery though? When Eyler finally got to see Dot again, she was lying completely unresponsive in the intensive care unit (ICU); looking so pale, so lifeless\u2026so unlike her normally happy, humorous self. However, a few days later, Eyler was relieved to see Dot doing better; smiling, fully sitting up and eating an orange Jell-O. Dot was able to live another five and a half years as well as get to know her sixth great grandchild, due to the 14 units of donated blood she received during her surgery. In fact, the day Dot was released from the Washington Hospital Center, Nov. 12, 1992, was the same day Eyler gave birth and Dot got to hold newborn Erica Eyler. With that miraculous gift in mind, Eyler concluded with this reminder: \u201cwe can train medical professionals, we can develop medications, we can design and build machines, but blood cannot be manufactured. It is only accessible when individuals are willing to donate it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"