Saturday is World Blood Donor Day; state institute seeks more units

By Heather Warlick

Published: June 10, 2008

Mary Pointer began giving blood in 1977 when the company for which she worked offered donors a day off work. That was all the incentive she needed. After giving blood for the first time, she was hooked, even though she is deathly afraid of needles.

"I know when I go in that I'm saving someone's life, quite literally,” she said.

But until 1981, no face was ever attached to the idea of saving a life. That changed radically when her husband, Joe Pointer, suddenly needed blood — and lots of it.

Joe Pointer had undergone surgery for a deviated septum. The surgery was fairly routine but then he reacted violently to post-surgery painkillers.

The painkillers caused his platelets to break down, so his blood wouldn't clot. Three times after surgery, Pointer began bleeding profusely from his incisions. The third time, doctors couldn't stop the bleeding.

"I really didn't know how serious I was,” he said. But Mary Pointer could sense the serious nature of her husband's condition.

"I remember looking at my 3-month-old baby and thinking, ‘I can't believe my baby is not going to have a father,'” she said. "It was very frightening.”

Joe Pointer would need new platelets and quickly. Doctors hooked him up to a machine that pumped unit after unit of donated blood into his arm. Still, he was losing blood through his nose quicker than they could pump it into him, so they started pumping more blood into his other arm.

Thirty-two units of blood later, Pointer stabilized. He regained enough strength to return to work three months later.

"Before my surgery, I'll be honest, I had no idea what platelets were,” he said.

"But I am living proof of what blood transfusions can do.”

Blood donations save lives, but summer is a season when fewer people donate blood in Oklahoma. School is out, and people are vacationing and participating in outdoor activities. The donations decrease, but the need for them doesn't.

Saturday is World Blood Donor Day, and John Armitage, chief executive officer of the Oklahoma Blood Institute, encourages everyone to donate a unit of blood.

"Blood donation is one of the few ways that someone who hasn't been to medical school or nursing school or medical technology school can be a healer. It's a pretty remarkable gift,” he said.

The Oklahoma Blood Institute is the 10th largest regional, nonprofit blood center in the U.S. and needs between 600 and 800 units of donated blood each day to maintain the current two- to three-day supply of stored blood. But ideally, the blood bank would like to maintain a much larger supply — more than twice the current supply.

"Imagine if we only had a two- to three-day supply of gauze or surgical staples or any other absolutely vital medical supply. That might be a cause for some concern,” Armitage said.

Healthy people can donate whole blood every 56 days, plasma every 28 days and platelets every seven days. "If we had a mass casualty, I think that's when we'd run into some real issues. We are running pretty tight.”

Plasma and platelet donations also are much-needed at this time of year.

Since her husband's near-death experience in 1981, Mary Pointer has continued to give blood faithfully and is now considered a "mega-donor.” She has given about 6 gallons even though she is still terrified of needles. Her husband's experience only left her more convinced of the importance of donating. To her, it's a civic responsibility that she takes seriously.

"You never know when something is going to happen, and when there is an emergency, there's not time to recruit volunteers to donate blood, to process the blood,” she said.

According to OBI, if you live to the age of 72, there is a 95 percent chance that you will need blood products during your lifetime.

"You have to donate constantly so there is a level of blood available to the community,” Pointer said.

Blood of all types is needed, though type O is the most common, found in 45 percent of people. It's also the "universal donor” — the only blood type that can be used for patients of any blood type. But donors of types A, B and AB also are needed because it is better to use the same type of blood, if possible.

And Armitage said more Hispanic, black and American Indian donors are needed.

"Some patients who receive many transfusions over time, such as sickle-cell patients, can develop resistance to versions of the minor blood group chemicals on the surface of red blood cells,” Armitage said.

So the best chance to find a match for these genetically determined, minor blood types is among people of a similar racial background, he said.

You can donate blood if you are at least 17 years old, relatively healthy, haven't had cancer within the past five years and haven't traveled internationally within the past year.

"You create your own pharmaceutical product that saves the life of somebody else, and there's no replacement for it,” Armitage said. "You don't have to have education or special training to do it. It's free; it's a donation you can make without reaching into your checkbook. It's a pretty unique way of helping out.”

Mary Lundy, laboratory technician, sorts blood at the Oklahoma Blood Institute.

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