{"id":4500,"date":"2020-05-08T14:59:45","date_gmt":"2020-05-08T18:59:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?p=4500"},"modified":"2020-05-08T14:59:45","modified_gmt":"2020-05-08T18:59:45","slug":"yeah-its-a-good-thing-to-do-all-the-reasons-to-donate-blood-and-some-reasons-not-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?p=4500","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Yeah, it&#8217;s a good thing to do&#8221; &#8212; all the reasons to donate blood, and some reasons not to"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Cate Krueger<\/strong><br \/>\nThe West Ottawan<br \/>\nWest Ottawa HS<br \/>\n1st Place Division 1, News Writing<br \/>\nEnvironmental, Health or Science<\/p>\n<p><b>JUDGING CRITERIA<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Topic relevant to the school or students and covers health, science or environmental story that is informative<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sharp, attention-getting lead grabs reader and arouses curiosity<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Shows thorough reporting skills through research and interviewing<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Effective use of facts\/quotes from both primary and secondary sources<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Balanced, fair and sensitive presentation<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sentences, paragraphs of varied length; written clearly, concisely and vividly<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Proper diction\/grammar; use of third person<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I\u2019m sitting at a long table, eyeing four types of brownies, surrounded by the sounds of beeping equipment, laughter, and music that everyone knows even though it hasn\u2019t played on the radio in years. Suddenly, a few chairs away from me, a woman quietly exclaims, \u201cOh! I\u2019m bleeding to death!\u201d and stands abruptly away from her chair, coat off, holding her arm out so the blood staining her elbow can\u2019t drip onto her clothes.<br \/>\nRed Cross personnel quickly usher her back to a donation table and reapply her bandages, using red wrap, the sticky bandaging typically used on first-time donors and to prevent bad bruising from getting worse. It seems like they\u2019re using twice as much as usual. The woman is annoyed at the blood on the sleeve of her nice winter coat, but the stain is on the inside, and the lining is black, so it\u2019s not a tragedy.<br \/>\nWhen I interview her a few minutes later, she tells me, \u201cIf I could give a gallon today, I would.\u201d Since she started giving blood, her whole family has followed in her footsteps. Her reasoning is common but powerful: \u201cIt doesn\u2019t cost me anything, and it saves lives.\u201d<br \/>\nThe woman setting out food encourages me to take a brownie. I can\u2019t donate today and the food is technically for donors. She insists. I eat a brownie. \u201cI used to [give blood], until I started passing out every time I tried,\u201d she tells me. \u201cSo now I just work the blood drives.\u201d<br \/>\nI\u2019m at the March 11 blood drive at Third Reformed Church in Holland, MI, conducting interviews on why people give blood. Most donors are older members of the church\u2019s congregation, and they speak to each other with familiarity. One man, who everyone refers to fondly as George, sits down next to me and asks if I\u2019ve had any of the brownies yet. When I reply that I have, he takes one as well and remarks offhand that he would have felt rude if he ate when I hadn\u2019t.<br \/>\nWhen I ask how many times he\u2019s donated, his immediate response is, \u201cThat would be a wild guess.\u201d He goes on, \u201cI suppose forty, maybe more, if you count direct transfusions \u2013 without going through the bottles, just directly into the patient \u2013 \u2018cause I\u2019ve done that too.\u201d<br \/>\nHe lists a few reasons for giving blood. One is pretty run-of-the-mill: \u201cWell, I\u2019ve been blessed with good health. I know that there are people who need it, and apparently my blood is the right type to help.\u201d One is more specific to his beliefs: \u201cI\u2019m a Christian pastor, and giving blood, shedding blood for others, is kind of central to our faith.\u201d And lastly, \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of satisfaction in knowing that you are helping other people, even if you don\u2019t see them or know their names.\u201d<br \/>\nDave is very specific in his agreement with this last point. \u201cI do it because it\u2019s probably the truest form of altruism. \u2018Cause I\u2019ve no idea where it goes or who gets it or who benefits from it, but I do know somebody will benefit from it.\u201d<br \/>\nHe\u2019s given blood about 140 times by his reckoning, and since he began attending Third Reformed, he\u2019s made an effort to always give there \u2013 their snacks are the best, he says, and I can confirm that none of the other drives I\u2019ve been to in the last year had four flavors (or any flavors) of brownies.<br \/>\nAnother man, Marty, doesn\u2019t bother trying to figure out how many times he\u2019s given blood. He just says he\u2019s given from the time he was 18 until now, when he\u2019s 76. He started, he said, because \u201cIn the military, they gave us the day off!\u201d Since then his donations have varied from twice a year to four times a year to six times a year, but he \u201calways thought it was a good idea to help those who were injured, either in the military or civilian life.\u201d<br \/>\nThe last man I talk to, Mike, gives blood \u201ckinda \u2018cause of karma. I feel like if I can give then I probably won\u2019t need.\u201d He also \u201chad an older friend who was kind of a grumpy old guy, he said \u2018ah, it\u2019s good to put that blood-making organ on overtime.\u2019\u201d This is donation number 86 for Mike, and he says \u201cIt\u2019s very simple to do, it\u2019s painless.\u201d<br \/>\nEveryone I\u2019ve talked to has mentioned how painless giving blood is; George said, \u201cIt\u2019s almost painless. Very little pain. You stick yourself with a safety pin and it\u2019s worse than [giving blood].\u201d Dave said \u201cThere\u2019s a little discomfort, but it\u2019s pretty minor. Given all the other things we do in our day, from things that hurt, it\u2019s not a big deal, and it goes away very quickly.\u201d We all saw the woman bleeding from the elbow earlier in the afternoon, but she herself said giving doesn\u2019t cost her anything.<br \/>\nSome West Ottawa students have legitimate worries about how giving blood could cost them. Soph. swimmer Micah Williams can\u2019t give during his season. \u201cI\u2019m not allowed to give blood while in athletics such as swimming because it can give me problems such as passing out in water.\u201d Athletes are very reliant on a high red blood cell count to carry them through strenuous practices and competitions, and giving blood can affect not just their performance but their health.<br \/>\nJr. Morgan Davis hasn\u2019t tried to give blood either, as \u201cI have vitamin deficiencies that make it unlikely that I would be able to give blood, and I don\u2019t weigh enough.\u201d If she tried to give blood, she would likely faint, and her vitamin deficiencies could be detrimental to an ill or injured person receiving her blood. Similarly, Soph. Timberlyn Mazeikis said, \u201cI have a blood disorder that may prevent me from giving blood\u201d because it would likely transfer to the recipient.<br \/>\nPain is also a real factor. Jr. Livia Konkle said, \u201cI have had to have blood drawn before a few times for health reasons, and 3\/4 of the time it hurt.\u201d Frequent blood donors tend to be people with larger veins, because for them donating is almost always painless. But for people with very small veins, painful mistakes can happen easily. The last time I donated blood, my elbow bruised so badly in the first minute that the Red Cross personnel had to stop me well before the bag was filled.<br \/>\nAll of these are excellent reasons not to give \u2013 donating blood is about lending your good health to others, not putting yourself at risk. But \u201cIf [you] can, [you] should,\u201d Marty said, and I agree. I plan to attempt another donation as soon as I am eligible, despite the bruising I encountered last time.<br \/>\nThree-quarters of student respondents to a Google Form about blood drives want to give blood in the future, even if they haven\u2019t already. Davis said, \u201cI want to give blood because I think that it\u2019s something important to do, and will do so as soon as my health complications stop being an issue.\u201d<br \/>\nAs George said, \u201cThere\u2019s some satisfaction\u201d to giving blood, and there\u2019s always a need for it. \u201cYeah, it\u2019s a good thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/thewestottawan.com\/2019\/04\/24\/yeah-its-a-good-thing-to-do-all-the-reasons-to-donate-blood-and-a-few-reasons-not-to\/\">Click here for the story.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Cate Krueger The West Ottawan West Ottawa HS 1st Place Division 1, News Writing Environmental, Health or Science JUDGING CRITERIA Topic relevant to the school or students and covers health, science or environmental story that is informative Sharp, attention-getting lead grabs reader and arouses curiosity Shows thorough reporting skills through research and interviewing Effective [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[65,4],"tags":[175,20],"class_list":["post-4500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-environmentalhealthorscience-nw","category-nw","tag-2019-20","tag-division1","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Joel Beeker","author_link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?author=9"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6K0n6-1aA","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4500\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}