Each year, KSU hosts several blood drives on campus. The First United Lutheran Church, in conjunction with LifeSouth, held a blood drive Thursday in its facilities and gathered blood and platelets from more than 50 KSU students and staff members.
Church member and blood drive volunteer Tonna Williams has been working with the drives for eight years. The cause hits close to home for Williams for a number of reasons. Williams said she worked as a nurse and has been in emergency rooms when the hospital’s blood supply ran dry.
“The doctor told me to run to the freezer and find some O-positive blood,”Williams said. “I went to the back freezer and there was not one O-positive or O-negative unit. All I knew was that this guy was going to die. He was bleeding so fast. The guy made it through by the grace of God.”
Williams had a number of stories illustrating how serious the lack of blood donations can be. From her children losing friends to being in the ER to people in her congregation needing donations, Williams has experienced the need for blood and platelets and has dedicated much of her life to gathering blood for local hospitals.
First United Lutheran Pastor Tony Prinsen calls the blood drive “one of [the church’s] best programs” because it helps them “connect with the community.”
Williams said most people do not realize what goes on behind hospital walls and why donating blood is important to patients. Many hospitals have to employ a “blood committee,” a staff of doctors that decides which patients need blood most because there is such a shortage.
Williams said one pint of blood could save the lives of three people, but there is a severe shortage of donors.
“Nationwide, 60 percent of people are eligible to donate,” Williams said, “but only 5 percent donate on a regular basis. In Georgia we have 3 percent that donate.”
Williams said blood shortages are the worst during summer months and the holiday season. She said hospitals often run out of blood because people get busy and forget to donate.
First United Lutheran Church had 50 or 60 donors during Thursday’s blood drive.
Freshman Mathematics major Brandon Bonner said the church’s drive was “a great opportunity to give blood for the first time. My dad donates a lot,” said Bonner. “It was a great experience, and I felt very well taken care of.”
Many KSU students are regular donors, but not all of them donate just blood. Brittany Crowell, a junior studying Elementary Education, said she has donated platelets at the church three times and multiple times elsewhere.
“I donate in honor of my aunt who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer six years ago,” Crowell said. She said her aunt has needed platelets on multiple occasions and that it doesn’t take that long to donate. “It doesn’t hurt and I’ve never passed out,” Crowell said. “Saving someone is worth the five seconds of pain.”
David Cunningham, who graduated from KSU in 2009, said he has donated blood for 15 years. He began giving blood when members of his own family became sick and had to get transfusions.
Senior Exercise and Health Science major Blake Pitts is also a regular donor. “I signed up when I donated last year at the church and they called me about the next drive,” said Pitts. “I used to be afraid of the needle or passing out, but it’s really not that bad.”
In addition to the United First Lutheran Church’s drive, Volunteer KSU hosts its own blood drive in the Student Center University Rooms. VKSU is a volunteer organization on campus that hosts a variety of campus events.
The main differences between the two blood drives is that the church’s religious affiliation and the organizations that run the blood drive. The church uses medical experts from LifeSouth to collect blood donations, while VKSU uses the American Red Cross. Williams said the organizations differ in their unionization and their way of organizing the drives. LifeSouth is not unionized.
VKSU’s administrative associate Flora Lowe-Rockett said the organization has “been doing the drives for years” and do them “four or five times a year.”
Although the church and VKSU’s blood drives are not affiliated, both organizations look to help the community by maximizing the number of donors to provide local hospitals with as much blood as possible.
First United Lutheran Church’s next blood drive will be Jan.16, 2014, and VKSU will host its drive Tuesday, Nov. 12 and Wednesday, Nov. 13 from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m.