LIHU’E — When Elaine Hartless was a teenager, parental pressure made her give blood. “My mother was a blood bank coordinator, so I was a blood donor. It wasn’t an option,” Hartless recalled. Mom, now 71, is a donor herself
LIHU’E — When Elaine Hartless was a teenager, parental pressure made her give
blood.
“My mother was a blood bank coordinator, so I was a blood donor. It
wasn’t an option,” Hartless recalled.
Mom, now 71, is a donor herself now,
while Hartless has gone on to become a medical technician who supervises the
blood bank at Wilcox Memorial Hospital—one of four Kaua’i locations for an
islandwide blood drive next week.
The drive, organized by Blood Bank of
Hawai’i, will begin Tuesday at the Kaua’i Marriott Resort, then shift to the
Hyatt Regency Kaua’i on Wednesday, Wilcox on Thursday and Pacific Missile Range
Facility on Friday.
The blood of donors will eventually help save the lives
of accident victims, cancer or leukemia patients and others.
As usual,
rare blood types O positive and O negative are especially needed. But all are
welcome, officials said.
“A major crash or two can wipe out supplies. The
more blood that’s donated, the better,” said JoVita Sagadraca, a member of
Kaua’i Friends for Life, a blood drive advisory committee.
“On a good day,”
90 to 100 donors show up for drives at Wilcox, Hartless said. The faces often
are familiar.
“Forty percent are return donors,” she said. “Some have come
back so often that they’ve given as much as 40 or 50 pints. It’s
remarkable.”
Anyone 17 or older (because they aren’t legal adults,
17-year-olds need written permission) can give blood as long as they’re free of
communicable diseases and don’t have a cold. They also shouldn’t have high or
low blood pressure, which could cause them to be lightheaded when donating
blood, Hartlless said.
Tests of blood make certain that diseases aren’t
spread.
Hartless said donors who keep coming back often are motivated by an
experience in which they or a loved one needed blood transfusions —someone
like Sagadraca.
“My brother was diagnosed with a blood disease that
requires aggressive blood treatment,” she said.
Kaua’i is known statewide
for being one of the most dependable places for blood drives.
“There are
real generous people here,” Hartless said.
To accommodate that generosity,
officials recommend making a donor appointment by calling Blood Bank of Hawai’i
at 1-800-372-9966.
The process of giving blood can last up to 45 minutes,
and having an appointment makes it easier for everyone involved, officials
said.
Editor Pat Jenkins can be reached at 245-3618 (ext. 227) and
pjenkins@pulitzer.net
