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Summer can be a tough time for the national blood supply – donations are down due to vacations, schools being out of session and other factors, but the need definitely doesn’t diminish.
That’s probably why I saw an injection of localized press releases in my inbox in July calling attention to blood donation efforts from organizations like the American Red Cross, Stanford Blood Center and even the U.S. Navy.
Another message caught my eye the most though. Chuck Deckert, a longtime Pleasanton resident and member of the Weekly family, posted on social media July 19 to commemorate his final time coordinating an American Red Cross drive after 15 years.
“The need for blood drives is absolutely essential in all parts of the country, and not really any less or more needed here locally,” Deckert, our freelance photographer, told me by email over the weekend. “Nearly 80% of red blood donations in the US every day are from mobile drives vs fixed locations. So each community, school, and college, needs to do their part to organize blood drives to keep our blood supply stabilized.”
Through the mobile drives Deckert has hosted (two to three per year since 2010), the Red Cross has collected more than 1,400 units of life-saving blood.
It’s a need he knows first-hand as a blood cancer survivor.
“Couldn’t have stayed alive without even 1 of those 24 transfusions,” Deckert told me, reflecting back on his treatment journey two decades ago.
The Pleasanton native and proud Amador Valley High alumnus was 43 years old when he was diagnosed with late-stage (3b) non-Hodgkin blood cancer: Burkitt lymphoma. Deckert and his medical team needed to act fast with this rare and dangerous cancer.
“The aggressiveness of Burkitt’s doubled the tumor size every day until treatment started,” he recalled. “Before the chemotherapy was started, my main involvement was a tumor in my stomach, which was the size of a small watermelon — which had started the size of a tangerine.”
Once his chemo regimen began, blood transfusions played an essential role.
“I had a total of five approximately three-week stays (99 days and nights) at the UCSF Parnassus Hospital that took me to April 2005 when I finished my treatment. Also had 10 spinal taps where they delivered chemo up to my brain, and 24 red blood transfusions,” he said.
The treatment was successful — and several years later, an opportunity arose to return the favor for the blood donation network and help patients facing a similar need. Deckert accepted a volunteer coordinator role in 2009 for the Red Cross’ newly developed Interfaith Blood Drives.
“The local LDS and Catholic churches were engaged to host drives in the summer months when supply of blood is very dangerously low,” Deckert said.
“Initially was my intent to give back all the blood from the 24 units I received from anonymous donors during my cancer period,” he added. “During my 15 years hosting ARC blood drives, however, 1,400+ units were collected, saving up to 4,200 lives, which I feel good about.”
The average adult has approximately 10 pints of blood in their system. One unit of blood is in the pint range, but measured medically on the metric scale: 450-500 milliliters.
The Red Cross website has some stunning stats to hammer home the need: every two seconds somebody needs blood or platelets in the United States, the average red blood cell transfusion is three units and a single car crash victim can need as many as 100 units of blood.
Oh, and only about 3% of age-eligible people donate blood annually.
A group of Tri-Valley residents in that participatory minority are taking part in the Red Cross blood drive at the Dublin Civic Center this Friday (Aug. 1), with a few appointment slots still available. The organization also has a whole round of openings for its daily hours at its Pleasanton Blood Donation Center (5880 W. Las Positas Blvd., Suite 34) next week.
Another person giving back is Navy Cmdr. John-Michael Gutierrez, a Pleasanton native whose recent blood donation aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln on the Pacific Ocean was highlighted in a nationwide press release from the Navy Office of Community Outreach on July 8.
“The walking blood bank is critical to Navy trauma care at sea and abroad,” Lt. Connor Arellano, attending general surgeon aboard USS Abraham Lincoln told me in a statement.
“Donated blood is a necessary part of resuscitation of the injured sailor or marine,” Arellano added. “Without blood, prompt emergency response and definitive surgical care will fail in a major injury. A supply of blood products from donors is foundational to the success of Navy medicine.”
A clear reminder how the need for donated blood and platelets is ever-present.
Stanford Blood Center, which has a donation facility in the Fallon Gateway shopping center in Dublin, sent a scary statement three weeks ago, saying it was dangerously low across its network due to the normal summer slowdown, an influx of transplant surgeries and cardiac procedures, and a plumbing closure at its largest location in Campbell.
“All blood types are needed, especially type O and type A, with just a 2- to 3-day supply of several blood types on hand,” center officials said July 14.
It appears that exigency eased a bit over the ensuing weeks, but the typical demand still looms large.
“Stanford Blood Center opened its Dublin location two years ago to better serve the growing number of people in the East Bay who were coming out to donate at mobile blood drives,” said Julie Peachey, PR officer at Stanford Blood Center. “The Tri-Valley location makes it easier for community members to give the life-saving gift of blood on a regular basis and helps ensure a strong, diverse blood supply for local patients in need.”
Editor’s note: Jeremy Walsh is the associate publisher and editorial director for the Embarcadero Media Foundation’s East Bay Division. His “What a Week” column is a recurring feature in the Pleasanton Weekly, Livermore Vine and DanvilleSanRamon.com.
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