BLOOD IS THE BUSINESS OF SAVING LIVES

David Palmer is in the business of blood collection, gathering thousands of pints of blood at hundreds of area drives for use at regional hospitals.

It's a big job, said Palmer, account representative for the Missouri-Illinois Regional Blood Services, a part of the American Red Cross.

"It's a never ending cycle," he said. "We are getting drives scheduled for March, April, May and June. We are having drives in February and following up with groups that had drives in December."

Palmer serves 17 counties in Southeast Missouri. Last year, 319 blood drives were held in those counties, collecting 20,000 units of blood.

In Cape Girardeau County alone, 90 blood drives were held.

In the Missouri-Illinois region, 275,000 units of blood were collected.

Donated blood is distributed to 120 hospitals in the Missouri-Illinois Blood Services Region.

"They are our customers," Palmer said. "They are our first priority -- to make sure they have the supply they need."

After the local hospitals are supplies, additional blood is shipped to other areas of the country where supplies are low. Sometimes, blood from other areas is routed here when donations are low.

In addition to Palmer, blood collection staff includes nine nurses ranging from donor care specialists to registered nurses, one mobile unit assistant and a driver. A new customer service representative will soon be added to the staff and will work out of the Red Cross chapter office and provide support and follow-up for Palmer.

Part of Palmer's job is recruiting groups, organizations or businesses to host blood drives. In order to schedule a drive, a sponsoring group must be able to round up at least 25 units of blood.

"Some groups do everything -- publicity, putting up posters, getting volunteers to work at the blood drive and helping us provide refreshments," Palmer said.

Other groups provide a portion of those services and the Red Cross provides the rest of the service. "The most important thing is getting donors signed up," Palmer said.

Once unit of blood is collected, it is sent to a central laboratory in St. Louis where it is typed and tested. Nine different tests are performed on each units, including those for HIV and hepatitis. "It takes about 20 hours for one unit of blood," Palmer said.

"The turn around time from blood donation to the hospital shelf is about 72 hours," Palmer said.

Only about 20 percent of donated blood remains as whole blood. Most is divided into different blood products like packed red blood cells, platelets and plasma.

"One blood donations could be used by three or four patients," he said.

"The shelf life of whole blood and packed red cells is up to 42 days," Palmer said. "Frozen plasma can be stored up to a year. Platelets, used especially for cancer patients, can be stored only five days."

A new type of blood donation called apheresis allows a donor to give just a particular product, like platelets. The donor is hooked up in both arms. Blood circulates from one arm through a machine where the product is extracted, and then back into the donor."

One donation through this process provides the equivalent of eight or nine traditional donors. The service is not yet available in Cape Girardeau.

The Red Cross also offers two types of special donations: autologous and directed. Autologous is a person donating for him or her own use.

Directed donations are given for a specific patient.

"These donations must be ordered by a patient's physician so we know what type of blood product to make," Palmer said.

Special donations are collected on Mondays at the chapter office.

Palmer said blood is always in short supply through the holidays -- from Thanksgiving through New Years.

"January is our highest usage month. Hospitals use more blood in January than any other month. And that comes after the slow period at the holidays."

He said summer months are also slow because fewer drives are scheduled and potential donors are vacationing.

Donors can give blood every 56 days, must be 17 years or older and weigh at least 110 pounds.

"We have some very faithful donors, people who have given gallons of blood." One donor has given 27 gallons and another 24 gallons, Palmer said.

"We have others who give one or twice a year. We are also trying to develop new donors," Palmer said. "We are always looking for new donors."

Those with type O are especially needed, Palmer said. "52 percent of what hospitals use is type O, but 47 percent of what we collect is type O. We are always in short supply on O, especially O negative."

When a person is in an accident and medical personnel don't know the blood type, O negative is used. "Everyone can receive O negative without harm," he said.

When arriving at a drive, donors are asked to fill out a registration form including name, address, social security number and some medical history.

A nurse then talks with each donor, asking more medical questions. Donors have their blood pressure, temperature and pulse taken. "And we prick your finger and test for adequate iron," Palmer said.

A second safety screening has been added. Potential donors are given two stickers. One says use the blood, the other says don't. "That's for a person who may have had a one time occurrence of say drug use, and doesn't want his boss or wife to know," Palmer said.

It takes between 4 and 10 minutes to actually donate one pint of blood. Donors are then asked to stay 10 to 15 minutes and to eat some refreshments.

"The whole process takes about an hour," he said.

"The bottom line is you are saving lives. You are helping someone you probably will never know."