The Current

Issue date: 8/25/08 Section: Features

Media Credit: Sofi Seck Rachael Mortensen, junior, Spanish education donates blood Brandie Fallone, a Phlebotonist for the Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center working the blood drive last Thursday in the Century rooms of the MSC. The blood drive was part of Welcome Week, sponsored by Student Life.

Media Credit: Sofi Seck Brandie Fallone, a Phlebotonist for the Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center working the blood drive last Thursday in the Century rooms of the MSC.

Usually, the activities planned for Welcome Back Week revolve around fun, games, and an abundance of free food. The result, hopefully, is that UM-St. Louis students become excited to begin the new school year and will continue to be involved on campus.

Every once in a while, however, there is an event that asks students to give back to their community. Last Thursday, many UM-St. Louis participants chose to help out those in need by donating to the annual blood drive held in the MSC Century Rooms.

Although this event was not lacking in the free food department, students had to have been willing to give roughly a pint of their blood before they could take a crack at the cookies and juice at the canteen table.

It is a good thing, then, that the students, faculty and staff members who participated in the blood drive probably did not do so because they were hungry for a snack.

"I feel that everything you do in life always comes back," said D'angela Alexander, junior, computer information systems, before giving blood.

"If one day I find myself in a situation where I need blood, hopefully someone will be generous to me, like I am being now for other people."

The blood drive at UM-St. Louis is sponsored by the Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center, and by donating last Thursday, Alexander's blood will most likely be transferred to someone within the St. Louis community.

"[The Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center] is the sole provider of blood to the SSM hospital system here in St. Louis. Whereas the Red Cross donates blood nationally, we at Mississippi Valley donate all our blood locally. Many of our donors like the fact that they can directly help out their community by donating to us," said Tara Fraizer, an associate donor resource consultant at the Mississippi Valley Blood Center.

Not everyone, however, is quite as generous with their pints of blood as Alexander was. And although Fraizer described the number of participants throughout the day as "steady," she also said they "could always use more donors."

Whether or not the Mississippi Valley Blood Center needs more donors, even most novices to the blood donating scene know that not everyone's blood is eligible.

Actually, The Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center's website (www.bloodcenter.org) lists a plethora of reasons why a person could be "ineligible" to donate.

Gwen Maucher, an exchange student from France, came to the blood drive and found out first hand one of the reasons that a donor is ineligible.

"I am trying to donate blood here for the first time. I have already donated twice in my life back in France," said Maucher, junior, English, before finding out that she was ineligible to donate.

"If you have lived for five years or more in certain countries in Europe after 1980, you are at risk for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease," said Fraizer, sounding disappointed to have to turn away Maucher.

In laymen's terms, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is also known as "Mad Cow Disease". Fraizer explained that although Maucher probably did not have the disease, there is no current technology that would allow the blood drive volunteers to test Maucher's blood just in case.

The staff at the blood drive did encourage Maucher to keep checking back, as the technology to test for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is currently being tested on lab mice.

Although Maucher was not able to donate at the annual blood drive, rest assured many other people were. The entire process took each student, faculty or staff member around 30 minutes, and very little of that time was spent with a needle in their arm.

"The whole process takes about 30 minutes. You register, and then your vitals are checked…it is sort of like a mini physical and includes checking your blood pressure and the amount of iron in your blood," said Fraizer.

"After the vitals is what we call the QDS station, but it is like a question station. This is where you answer personal questions that let us know whether you can give blood.

The fourth step is the actual donation process, which actually only takes five to seven minutes. The fifth and final step is to eat at the cookies and juice table where you can rehydrate yourself," finished Fraizer.

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