Donated blood can be separated into three main parts – whole blood, platelets and plasma. Whole blood takes the least time to donate – approximately 75 minutes – but you cannot donate as frequently because it takes at least 56 days for your bone marrow to regenerate your blood cells. Whole blood is used to help those with major blood loss or those with an illness that prevents the body from regenerating blood.

 

Platelets take longer to donate – 2-3 hours – but you can donate once a week and help patients who need an organ transplant, have cancer, or live with certain chronic diseases. Plasma helps to boost blood volume, which can prevent shock and help with blood clotting. It is commonly given to trauma, burn and shock patients, as well as people with severe liver disease or multiple clotting factor deficiencies. 

 

Bailey prefers to donate plasma. She goes in “at the crack of dawn” most Fridays to make her donation. She enjoys tracking where her blood goes – most recently to St. Peter’s Hospital in Helena and to Providence St. Patrick's Hospital in Missoula. She particularly enjoys the testimonials of children who have benefted from her blood donations. Among the pictures of grateful recipients she showed was a picture of her and one of those children, a little girl named Katie, who suffered major hemorrhaging when she was born. She needed 23 units of blood, more than twice what the average body holds, and Bailey was able to contribute several of them. "What's a little discomfort, a fear of needles, next to the opportunity to save a life?" Bailey observed.

 

Many Rotarians – notably Kurt Baltrusch, Mark Finnicum, and Sheila Rice – are regular blood donors and more than a few of us have been on the receiving end of this generosity. Last Tuesday's meeting offered a heart-warming presentation by a young woman who has discovered that “it is through self-sacrifice that kindness takes on significance.”