Who doesn’t like giant needles and getting one tenth of their bodies blood taken from them? Well, nearly forty Prep students love doing it for a great cause.

On October 26, Seattle Prep held its very first blood drive of the year.

Giving blood is an important service that Prep has been generous enough to support for the past six years. Blood cannot be manufactured and people who need blood rely on donations like those given by Prep students and teachers.

Sometimes donating blood can take a turn for the worse. Sara Rothrock ’18 was excited to donate blood for the first time. She had a good breakfast and drank lots of water in preparation for having her blood drawn, but only a few minutes into taking her blood things started to get a little foggy.

Rothrock said “The next thing I know, my needle is out, and they are tipping my chair back. My Gatorade went flying into my lap and I was drenched. Then I couldn’t hear anything, my heart was racing, and then briefly everything went black. When I woke up there were like three different ice packs on me and I was feeling just fine.”

Rothrock reflected on the experience saying “It was scary and the whole thing felt weird. I was very confused, but [the staff] were like ‘It’s okay. You are the only one to faint today.'”

Although there can be some mishaps when it comes to donating blood, most of the time people have a great experience and feel very rewarded knowing that they helped save someone’s life. Donating blood can be fun, and not just the part about missing class.

Mrs. Ford remembers one year a group of seniors did a “Blood Drive Selfie” contest. They all turned in their selfies to Mrs. Ford and she picked the winner. She recalled that “the winner got all the blood drive staff in their selfie” and Mrs. Ford thinks that there should be a “school wide selfie contest at the January drive.”

The donations provided by the students and faculty at Prep can help save up to three lives because the blood is separated into red cells, platelets and plasma that can each go to a different local patient.
Prep partnered with Bloodworks Northwest to collect donations from Prep students and faculty. Bloodworks Northwest helps over 55,000 patients each year by providing over 90 hospitals with blood to perform lifesaving transfusions. They have been working to save lives for over 70 years through research, innovation, education and finally through collecting donations.

Roughly 36,000 units of red blood cells are needed every day in the United States and every two seconds someone is in need of blood. A car crash alone can require 100 pints of blood. Out of the estimated 38% of the United States population that is eligible to donate blood only 10% actually do.

There will be two more blood drives throughout the year and the next drive is on January 11th. If you want to donate sooner, you can find a drive near you by visiting the Bloodworks Northwest website. There is a donating center located in Seattle that is open every day of the week. Giving blood only takes about ten minutes, but the whole application and evaluation process takes about one hour. However, it will be time well spent because the donation could save as many as three lives.

There are four basic types of blood: A, B, AB and O, each with a positive and negative sub-type. Although all blood types are welcomed as donations, O is the most commonly requested blood type by hospitals because O negative blood can be transfused to people of all blood types. AB plasma can also be transfused to people of all blood types.

The human body contains about 10 pints of blood and approximately 1 pint is given during a donation. Therefore, it is very important that before and after donating blood the donator drinks plenty of water, gets some food to eat and avoids strenuous activity for the rest of the day.

Some people’s donating experiences are better than others, but they all agree that it is a great cause and worth doing if it means being able to save lives. So next time there is a blood drive at Prep sign up.