Blood: the gift that some keep on giving

DeGowin Blood Donor Center staff member Ethel Bontrager monitors Lyra Dickerson as she donates platelets. January is National Blood Donor Month. Photo by Rex Bavousett.

No, that’s not how much eggnog Iowa Citians consumed over the holidays. It’s the number of pints of blood products used annually at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC). That’s an average of 50 blood transfusions a day, and while approximately 3,700 people have donated blood at least once in the past year, the hospital still finds it necessary to purchase about two-thirds of its blood from outside sources like the American Red Cross.

"Our donations are good, but they need to be better," says Mitch Overton, donor recruitment coordinator for the DeGowin Blood Donor Center at UIHC. "Our goal is to be 100 percent self-sufficient."

Nationally, advances in modern medicine, including transplants and some cancer treatments that use blood products, have increased the need for blood. At the same time, the public is donating less.

"For people who grew up in the forties, fifties, and sixties, there was a real emphasis on the importance of blood donation," Overton says. "Now there’s not as much national publicity, and people lead busier lives."

Still, some people with busy lives regularly squeeze in the time required to donate blood. One of those people is Ken Davenport, the director of Facilities Services Group at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

"It’s important to me to give blood and so I work the donation time into my schedule," he says. As a regular donor, Davenport gets a call from the DeGowin Center staff when he’s eligible for donation, about six times a year. He donates whole blood, and says that from the brief history taken by the nurses before donation to the snack served afterward, the procedure never lasts more than an hour. The donation itself takes only ten minutes.

Davenport has given blood nearly every year since 1967, when he was drafted into military service, where blood donation was mandatory.

When he returned from Vietnam in 1970, Davenport went to work for the Veteran’s Administration Medical Center in Wood, Wis.

"I was around other veterans my age, with similar Vietnam experiences. They were just like me except they returned in bad shape," he says. "That’s when the importance of giving blood really sank in."

The DeGowin blood bank is named for Elmer L. DeGowin, a pioneer in blood banking and a UIHC physician from 1932 until his death in 1980. In addition to collecting, storing, and supplying blood for UIHC, the center offers training for medical students, residents, and fellows. For more information on the center’s activities and its history, visit its web site, www.medicine.uiowa.edu/pathology/path_folder/bloodcenter/blood.html.

While blood donors can certainly feel good about the help they’re providing for those in need, Lyra Dickerson, the University’s assistant director for human resources, says her regular platelet donation provides other benefits as well.

"It’s kind of a vacation for me," says Dickerson, who’s been donating whole blood and platelets regularly for much of the past ten years. Because she donates nearly once a month, she’s gotten to know the DeGowin Center’s staff and enjoys visiting with them during the two-and-one-half hours required for platelet donations. "My blood pressure is usually lower after the procedure than before."

Donors of platelets and white blood cells can choose to receive money for their efforts or they may return the money to the DeGowin Center’s education fund. Dickerson, who uses what she calls her "blood money" to buy Beanie Babies for her grandchildren, says that the money is secondary in her decision to donate.

"Even if they didn’t pay, I’d still do it," she says. "I’m glad to be helping out, and I hope that if I need blood or platelets someday, someone would do the same for me."

Article by Linzee Kull McCray