With an estimated 300 pints of blood donated by students and staff last week, the blood drive was a success, Wendy Clark, Registered Nurse team supervisor, said.
“Our goal for Tuesday and Thursday was to collect 82 pints of blood, and for Wednesday, our goal was to collect 164 pints of blood,” Clark said.
The number of staff members at the event requires a certain number of sign-ups. The more sign-ups they receive, the more staff members were available.
“There were an estimated amount of 300 or more people who donated, and we had about 40 staff members a day to help,” Chris Pham, Inter-club council vice president, said.
There were plenty of people checking in and out at the blood drive wanting to donate some of their blood to those who need it most.
“The process is kind of long, but it is for a good cause,” Eric Taylor, 20, accounting major, said. “I would do it again, but I have to wait a few more months to do it again.”
Once you have donated blood, the blood has to build back up. So there is a certain amount of months you have to wait in order to donate blood again.
“It takes about 12 months for antibodies to show up before you are able to donate blood again,” Wendy Clark said.
There are three stages to donate blood. First, there is pre-donation that takes about 5 to 10 minutes where you read a book giving information.
Next, the blood history is checked where for about 10 to 15 minutes where your blood pressure, temperature and iron are checked.
Then you answer a 49 questionnaire.
Then, the blood is drawn from your arm for about 10-15 minutes.
Finally the donors are asked to sit in the canteen area for 5-10 minutes so that they can eat, drink, and rest.
“This process takes about 45 minutes to an hour depending on the donor,” Clark said. “And if you do not sit in the canteen area, most likely you will faint, which is why we ask the donors to sit there.
After the blood is donated it is then sent to manufactures.
“It goes to through a large manufacture process facility in Pomona where it is labeled, tested, and separated in tubes and stored into a large fridge until testing is done,” Clark said.
After further testing, the blood is packaged and shipped to whoever puts in a request to receive the blood.
“The blood is separated by blood type. If the hospital’s request O positive or O negative blood, which are needed most, they are packaged separately and sent out to a donor who needs it,” Clark said.
The campus is scheduled to have future blood drives for those who missed their chance at signing up to donate blood, and for those who want to continue donating blood.
“We come at least twice a year and usually run it for about three days,” Clark said. “Our next blood drive is in March. For more information about donating blood students are encouraged to visit the Southern California Red Cross Web site.