July 20, 2016 at 2:41 p.m.
Community turns out to save lives at MASH blood drive
Community turns out to save lives at MASH blood drive
By Kayla Thomason-
A steady flow of donors arrived throughout the morning, Morehart reported. The goal was to collect 150 units of whole blood, which would require 200 donors. Nearly halfway through the day the number of donors hadn't been tallied, but organizers were pleased with the turnout.
"I do know that the event gets bigger and better every single year so we have seen an increase in donors and an increase in our goal and the community continues to support that," said Morehart.
This blood drive is held during the summer because the number of donations is historically lower in this season.
"We hold a lot of these large blood drive events during the summer season because traditionally summer is a challenging time for us to collect blood, just with high schools not being in session and also everyone has a lot of busy summer plans. So this is a unique opportunity for people to come out, have a little fun, get a free T-shirt and also save a life as well," Morehart said.
Dan Dietzler has donated 25 to 30 times but this was his first time at the MASH drive.
"Very important, it saves many lives," he said of donating blood. "I hope everybody would feel the same way, come down, donate blood."
Jim Jacobus is another long-time donor, having given blood 30 to 40 times. This was his second visit to the MASH event.
"There's a lot of people need it all the time, so long as I can get some old blood out of me and get some new in again, I don't mind donating at all," he said.
He knows the need for blood donations is great, and he's glad to be of help.
"I felt the need for it, there's a lot of people that need blood and it doesn't hurt me so what the heck, might as well do it," Jacobus said.
Danielle Marvin had never donated blood before, but after needing a transfusion years ago she decided she'd pay it forward.
"It was all right," she said. "I was inspired by a surgery that I had in 2009 (where) I received an 8-pint blood transfusion."
Tuesday's donation was a tad impromptu but she plans to do it again.
"(The blood drive is) nice, I just stumbled on this today, came up to Rhinelander and they seem very nice here and have a very great staff," Marvin said. "If I could help save somebody's life I definitely would."
While many people believe that accident victims use the most donated blood, that actually isn't the case.
"Every two seconds someone in the U.S. needs blood," Morehart said. "Many people assume that accident victims use the most blood but in fact it's cancer patients, patients who've underwent orthopedic surgeries, heart surgeries, organ or marrow transplants, and people who receive treatment for inherent blood disorders who are actually the ones who need blood the most."
Those who would like to save a life by donating blood have to be 17 years of age or older (16 with parental consent).
Prior to donating people should get a good night's rest, stay hydrated and eat a balanced meal.
"We do a health screening to make sure that the donor is healthy enough to donate blood on the day of the event and then we also take all of our blood to our own processing lab that we process all the blood and test it, and make sure it's safe for the hospital's use," Morehart said.
The process is fairly painless and takes only a little time out of one's day.
"It's relatively painless, I mean a lot of people say it's a great way to give back to your community and the whole process takes less than an hour probably to drive here, get registered go through the screening process and maybe 10 minutes to donate the actual blood and then you get to enjoy a free meal afterward," Morehart said.
All of the blood donated during the Hodag MASH blood drive will go to local hospitals.
Kayla Breese may be reached at [email protected].
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