For some people, reality means constant blood transfusions and surgeries. While walking down the street, others won’t notice, but those who face that battle do know. Blood is a heavily used and desperately needed medical resource, which is why the medical field turns to blood drives for help.
Pleasant Valley’s Spartan Assembly has run multiple drives in the past years, with one scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 25. PV’s collaboration with ImpactLife has succeeded in bringing awareness to an ever-needed and important organization.
The process of donating blood is fairly simple. To begin, donors must pass a screening and fill out forms. From there, the process of physically drawing blood lasts around 10 minutes. One important thing that ImpactLife mentions is the need to drink plenty of fluids and eat before and after the donation.
Kristy Carr, one of two Spartan Assembly advisors, has been helping organize and prepare for the past and upcoming blood drive events. “Students can sign up online or through any Spartan Assembly member. They are then given a reminder card which serves as their pass for class,” Carr said. “It takes less than an hour for the entire process.”
To encourage donations, ImpactLife offers many incentives. All donors are eligible for a $20 gift card of their choice, and student donors are eligible for the Student Impact Award.
ImpactLife has specific needs for certain types of blood on its website and highlights how each blood type is unique and important for donation. Currently, blood type O- is in critical need.
Many people donating blood never truly know who will receive it, but hope it helps someone. Others have experienced moments when receiving blood saved their life or the life of someone they are close to.
Christopher Kohn, a current science teacher at Pleasant Valley, and his wife, Meghan Kohn, lost their son, Will Kohn, in 2018. Will was born in 2010 with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, meaning he had an underdeveloped left ventricle. He underwent multiple open-heart surgeries and, in 2014, was placed on the heart transplant list. He received a heart transplant in 2017. After surgery, Will was diagnosed with PTLD, or post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder, a type of cancer.
Christopher Kohn said Will often needed blood in various stages of his life, so blood drives have significant importance for him. “There was a period of time that Will had an external heart that went through blood far more than a normal heart,” said Kohn. “So there were times that we would wake up in the middle of the night and he just needed blood transfusions to survive the night.”
Both Meghan and Christopher Kohn recognize the importance of blood donation for their families and others. Meghan expressed that she feels donating blood is an extremely selfless act of kindness.
Kohn pointed out that before Will became very sick, it would be hard for people to tell he had a heart defect. “You never know who around you might have received or be in need of a blood transfusion,” shared Kohn. “So when you’re going down the street, you might pass someone that’s received multiple blood transfusions because of something going on in their life, and you just don’t realize that.”
Reality for some is that they won’t need to face the battles that others do, needing a blood transfusion to survive, but the kindness one has to give blood can make a world of difference.
“Adults and kids think it’s not important to them because they never had to have a transfusion,” said Kohn. “But anything can happen in life, and all of a sudden, they’re in dire need of blood, and someone else donated to allow them to push through.”
Donating blood has the power to impact someone’s life directly, even if you don’t know the person and never will. The simple act of donating blood can save lives.
Spartan Assembly and ImpactLife hope to encourage more people to donate blood in the upcoming drive. They are always open to taking new donors, and sign-ups are on their website.
