Give A One-pint Gift Of Life To Blood Bank For Thanksgiving
By MidWeek Staff
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Sandra Armstrong
Special To The Windward Islander
As I donated blood, I glanced up to see three other people sitting back and relaxing. We look so different on the outside, I thought, I mean really different (man, woman, race, color). Yet what we were doing to save lives was the essence of life, and that is colorblind.
The first time I successfully donated blood was at my daughter’s honor society blood drive in the Kalaheo High library. I was nervous because I’d been rejected previously. But in Hawaii, I did it! And then I did it again, and again. It felt so great to walk out into the sunshine and recognize that saving someone’s life was the best feeling in the world.
Recently, when I received my usual call to donate, I thought, should I do this? Me of all people. I remember an elderly man calling me right after my dad’s death. “You don’t remember me, but I donated blood for you over 50 years ago.”
Suddenly, the full realization hit me hundreds of strangers had donated their blood for my survival.
I don’t know them, and I can’t thank them. My blood and my flesh are not my own. Good-hearted men and women were responsible for the blood that pumps through me. After all these years, I still don’t know where my blood begins and theirs ends.
My surgery was in 1954 when I was 5. It took 35 pints of blood to close up a hole in my heart a hole that put my survival rate at 50 percent. What did I know? I was just a little girl clinging to my mother. But this is where I learned what unconditional love to a stranger means. Love is when a whole busload of war veterans donate their blood to a child they’ve never met. That’s exactly what happened to me. Love is donating a vital part of you, like your blood, to someone you will never meet.
I recently donated in the bloodmobile parked at St. John Vianney Parish Church in Enchanted Lake. (The bloodmobiles are clean, safe, comfortable and staffed with professionals.) Mass had just ended, and I sat among congregants who were feeling good, eating doughnuts, drinking coffee and having a great time talking to each other. I thought, what a peaceful, perfect, harmonious day.
The whole trip took less than an hour of my time. I read a manuscript while donating, and after my one pint of blood was drawn, I hardly noticed that I was done. As Christine Flores ministered to me, she answered a few questions.
“There is no age limit to donating blood, as long as you remain in good health,” she said. “The red blood cells are usable under refrigeration for 35 to 42 days. The plasma can stay frozen up to a year, and the platelets last five days in constant motion.”
I later learned that only 2 percent of the population here in Hawaii donates, yet 60 percent of us will need blood at some point in our lives. We’re all the same inside, despite our outward appearances. Your blood is no different than mine, and so on and so on. I think we sometimes forget this.
To be a donor, call the Hawaii Blood Bank at 8459966. Upcoming Windward drives include Nov. 15 at Windward Community College, Nov. 23 at Castle High School, Nov. 26 at Ben Parker Elementary and Nov. 27 at St. John Vianney.
Sandra Armstrong is a special education preschool teacher at Kailua Elementary School in the Head Start inclusion program. She achieved the one-gallon blood donor mark last year.
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