While out scouring the airwaves and surfing the dialer board for blood donors – as not just a blood donor recruiter, but a Conversational Marketing Expert (CME) at Incept- one of the things I learned very quickly about donating blood was how it can save the lives of up to three people. At the very least, a unit of blood is enough to make the lives of three people who need it more comfortable.
Whenever I try to describe the amount of blood taken during a simple whole blood donation, I often compare it to a small juice box or carton of chocolate milk. I say that because, when first time donors think of giving blood, usually I can hear the apprehension in their voices as they give the impression that they are visualizing an enormous amount of blood is going to be taken. In reality, like I said above, it is just 500 milliliters of blood or, for comparison, just about the size of a small box of juice.
What is stopping you from donating?
Even though donating blood can consist of taking time out of a day off from work, donating blood between classes, driving to the donor center and many other small steps before an actual donation takes place, the thing that last on beyond all those steps is the fact that someone is being helped as a final result of all the efforts made.
A whole blood donation is quite possibly one of the easiest blood donations one can do. It is called a whole blood donation because every part of the blood is taken and nothing is initially divided or separated during the donation process, you literally are donating it in whole form. When it comes to red cells from that donation, those can go to help people who are going through surgeries or victims of trauma situations, as a red blood cell’s main function is to transport oxygen from the lungs to cells all throughout our bodies via our blood stream. The plasma that is donated can also go to a wide variety of patient needs. Plasma-derived therapies create treatments for a range of rare and oftentimes genetic-based diseases, including hemophilia, primary immunodeficiency, and alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, as well as other medical conditions such as burns and electrical shock. When it comes to platelets, patients who need them most are generally undergoing chemotherapy or an organ transplant and have weakened immune systems and aren’t able to fight the illness as adequately.Platelets‘ (also called white blood cells) main objective is to take out foreign germs, viruses and other infections that can cause sickness. That is why when they receive platelets in the form of therapeutic treatments their lives really are improving because someone donated.
The above are just a few examples of how one simple whole blood donation and a little less than an hour of time can drastically improve the life of someone. When it comes to supporting blood donations I think I’m going to start bringing back the mantra:
If you haven’t donated – or it has been a while – what’s stopping you?
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