UBS seeks blood donors to overcome summer slump

About 20 years ago, Stewart West of Berwick was in a car accident. He needed a pint of blood. Now he donates blood as often as he can.

West returned Thursday to United Blood Services to donate platelets for cancer patients.

For him, donating blood is a good thing to do.

“I get to help people and get a shirt out of it,” West jokingly said. “You could always use clothes.”

The UBS donation center is currently seeking all negative blood types: A negative, B negative, AB negative and O negative. The need is really great for O negative blood types.

Type O negative blood is the only type that can safely be given to patients of all blood types. It’s the first type trauma doctors reach for when there is no time to spare.

“Not many of the population have negative blood types,” said Assistant Donor Care Supervisor Clair Akes . “And so for the ones that are, it’s always a struggle with getting people to come in and donate.

“It’s either feast or famine. They’re either coming in droves or they’re not coming in at all.”

West thinks donors get something special in return for their blood.

“You give and you get,” West said. “That’s the way I look at it. The need is there. And hopefully, if somebody needs it, then I can give it. So be it.”

“You just never know who’s going to need it or when they’re going to need it,” Donor Care Specialist Star Norman said. “I just feel like it’s the right thing to do.”

But Norman adds a twist as to why donating blood is beneficial to the body.

“For you as a person, it’s helpful for your body, too,” Norman said. “It’s like an oil change. It helps the heart. So you’re doing it for someone else.

“But you’re … making yourself better in the process, not realizing you’re helping yourself out.”

Donations are few and far between in the summertime.

“In the summer, it’s more difficult because you have people on vacation and school’s out,” Akes said. “Right now, it’s difficult because there are a lot of layoffs. People are moving. They are out of jobs.”

People travel from Houma, Thibodaux, Franklin, Baldwin, and the Tri-City area to donate blood at the center.

But now, “they don’t want to spend the extra money on gas to get here,” Akes said.

The center not only provides blood services to Teche Regional Medical Center but also to Terrebonne General, Thibodaux Regional, Dauterive, Iberia General, and Franklin Foundation hospitals, Akes said.

In addition, services are provided to hospitals throughout Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Alabama.

Volunteer blood donors must be at least 16 years old and weigh at least 110 pounds. Parental consent is required for 16-year-olds only. A photo ID is required to donate.

Blood donors who donate in April will receive a gift card and T-shirt.

The donation center collects blood, platelets, double red blood cells, and whole blood cells.

“It only takes 45 minutes out of your day,” Akes said. “We hate to keep relying on the same people. The bigger the donor base is, the less you have to rely on the same wonderful people over and over again.”

For more information, call 1-877-827-4376. Also, information can be found at www.bloodhero.com or www.unitedbloodservices.org.