Blood Donors Sought to Meet Region's Demand

By Melissa Arseniuk

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Elizabeth Lancaster might not look like a hero, but she saved three lives last week. It wasn't her first time, either. She's done it three or four times before.

Dave Hartman also improved the lives of others, noting he does it every few weeks.

No, they didn't nonchalantly stop an armed gunman or save a bus from careening off a steep cliff. Instead, all they did was sit back and relax.

Lancaster and Hartman donated blood products at Inova Blood Donor Services (IBDS) in Sterling last week. One of Inova's five blood donation sites, the center at 45745 Nokes Blvd., Suite 160, sees about 400 people every month -- though employees would like to see that number increase to 500 to help meet increasing demand.

The need for blood in the D.C. metro area is both ongoing and significant: About 200 donations are required every day to meet the needs of all 15 area hospitals, including Inova Loudoun Hospital. Each unit of donated blood can be used to save up to three lives.

Though people are able to donate blood every 56 days, the average donor visits far less frequently.

"Right now the average is just under twice a year," said Rebecca Hileman, assistant director of business and development education at IBDS. "If people would donate only twice as often as they do now … we would effectively double our collections (and) we'd never have to be on alert."

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Behind the Scenes at Inova Blood Donor Services

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Elizabeth Lancaster, 30, of Leesburg, smiles as she donates blood at IBDS in Sterling. "They're pretty good with the pin pricks," she said. "You don't even feel it." (Melissa Arseniuk)

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Elizabeth Lancaster chats with Inova Blood Donor Services nurse Zina Ali as she donates blood. (Melissa Arseniuk)

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Dave Hartman, 53, of Woodbridge, reads while an apheresis machine collects platelets at Inova Blood Donor Services on Nokes Boulevard in Sterling. (Melissa Arseniuk)

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This apheresis machine has the ability to extract just platelets or just red blood cells from a donor. Traditional blood extraction machines take whole units of blood. (Melissa Arseniuk)

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One of the apheresis blood product donation stations at IBDS in Sterling. (Melissa Arseniuk)

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Blood arrives at Inova Blood Donation Services in coolers after it is collected at mobile donation sites across the region. (Melissa Arseniuk)

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Inova Blood Donation Services lab technician Russell Whiteaker "burps" bags of donated blood to remove air before processing. (Melissa Arseniuk)

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This centrifuge machine spins at 4,000 rounds per minute to separate platelets and plasma from red blood cells during the early stages of processing. (Melissa Arseniuk)

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An Inova lab technician separates platelets and plasma from red blood cells during the "components" stage of processing. (Melissa Arseniuk)

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Platelets and plasma are siphoned off, leaving the red blood cells behind during processing at Inova Blood Donor Services lab in Sterling. (Melissa Arseniuk)

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Platelets like these have a variety of medical uses, including organ and bone marrow transplants, and treating burn victims. (Melissa Arseniuk)

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These bags contain plasma that was processed at the Inova Blood Donor Services lab in Sterling. (Melissa Arseniuk)

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Processed platelets are stored in this agitator before being sent to area hospitals. (Melissa Arseniuk)

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Frozen plasma waits in an Inova Blood Donor Services' freezer after processing. Plasma can be frozen for up to a year. (Melissa Arseniuk)

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Red blood cells are organized by blood type and stored in bins inside industrial-sized coolers at Inova Blood Donor Services at Dulles Town Center. (Melissa Arseniuk)

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It takes less than an hour to donate blood, from the time a donor enters the door to the moment they swallow the last bite of post-donation cookie. Donating by apheresis, which involves a special machine that takes just one of the three components from a donor's blood, takes longer.

"It's an hour of someone's time that can add years to someone's life," Hileman said.

Hartman donates platelets by apheresis regularly. The Woodbridge-based draftsman started donating blood in his teens.

"Back when I was a teenager … the job I had let you off early if you donated blood," he said with a gentle laugh.

Today, his motivations are a bit different. His wife, Tracey Hartman, is a nurse in the maternity ward at Inova Alexandria Hospital. Platelets are often needed for mothers during childbirth, and Hartman said it's hard to hear his wife come home and tell him they didn't have the platelets they needed that day. As a result, he makes a point of donating that specific blood component every 14 days.

While 45 to 65 milliliters of platelets are extracted from a single whole blood donation, an apheresis machine can collect six to 10 times that amount in a single sitting. And because platelet donations by apheresis don't deplete the body's red blood cell count, the recovery time is reduced by 75 percent, allowing donors to donate every 14 days.

"It seems better to give platelets every two weeks than … to donate whole blood every 56 days," Hartman said.

While the apheresis machine collects Hartman's platelets, the 53-year-old passes the hour and 15 minutes it takes by reading, watching television or viewing a DVD from IBDS' 40-plus movie library.

Hartman said he rarely feels side effects from donating.

"Rehydration is the key," he said. "If I don't drink a lot of water, I feel tired."

He said donating makes him feel good. Lancaster agrees.

"You feel better about yourself when you leave," the 30-year-old public defender from Leesburg said. "It's definitely a good pick-me-up."

Lancaster said she gives blood about once a year, or more often if her blood type is in short supply.

"I found out that (my blood type) was B-negative, which I think only 10 percent of the population has … so whenever they're having a B crisis I try to come in," she said.

Blood shortages happen from time to time, but Hileman said they are hard to predict and prevent, and no one type is in higher demand than another.

"It's the one (blood type) we don't have when somebody needs it," Hileman said. "The fact is we need every blood type every day."

Lancaster said giving blood doesn't hurt nearly as much as she originally thought it would. "They're pretty good with the pin pricks," she said.

After blood is collected, the work is far from over. All blood products go through rigorous processing and testing before they reach hospitals' emergency or operating rooms.

"We're very highly regulated by the FDA," Hileman said. "There are several quality controls to ensure nothing happens to compromise the viability of the units."

The first step in blood processing involves separating whole blood into its three components: platelets, plasma and red blood cells.

After the bags of collected blood are hung and "burped" to get as much air out of them as possible, they go for a nine-minute ride on a centrifuge machine, which spins at 4,000 rounds per minute. During the high-speed merry-go-round ride, the plasma and platelets rise to the top, separating themselves from the red blood cells. This makes collecting them a snap when technicians siphon off the plasma and platelets, leaving the red blood cells behind.

Next, the collected platelets and plasma take another, slightly slower spin in the centrifuge to allow lab technicians to separate and package them individually.

Once separated by component, the blood products are subjected to a dozen tests to ensure quality and safety. Tests for "Rh factor" are performed to determine the blood type of each product, while screening for infectious diseases like HIV, hepatitis and West Nile also are completed before the products are labeled and stored for distribution.

While the processed platelets wait to be sent to hospitals in need, they are kept at room temperature in special agitator machines. Meanwhile, red blood cells are kept cool in commercial-sized refrigerators, and plasma is frozen.

Blood is needed throughout the medical system, from cancer and maternity wards to emergency rooms. A single trauma patient can require 30 to 40 units of blood during the first few hours of treatment alone, while a liver transplant can use up to 100 units. A bone marrow transplant can require 120 units of platelets.

Donors must be in good health, at least 17 years old, weigh at least 110 pounds and not be on any antibiotics. For more information on donating blood, contact Inova Blood Donor Services at 1-866-BLOOD-SAVES or visit http://www.inova.org/donateblood.

Tagged: blood donor, Inova

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