DHS Student Looking for Blood Donation Anecdotes
Decatur Metro | January 17, 2013Fikrea writes in…
My name is Fikrea Tesema and I am on the Decatur high school journalism staff, the Carpe Diem. Right now I am writing a story at the school about blood donations. I was wondering if you could possibly post this on the Decatur Metro site to see if anyone has a personal anecdote about blood donation. They can either be givers or receivers that had a lasting effect either being a blood recipient or a donor. If there are any people willing to interview with me either face-to-face, phone, or email, I would greatly appreciate it. They will not be an anonymous source but they will not be on camera either. Their name will be stated in my newsmagazine story. Thank you very much for your time.
- -Fikrea Tesesma
- journalism staff at Decatur high school
- fikreatesema@csdecatur.net
- 770-906-3751
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acedotes –> anecdotes
I have a colleague who was a victim of the Buckhead shootings in 1999. She very nearly died, but survived, largely as a result of numerous transfusions. Today she speaks passionately — and very effectively — to groups to advocate for blood donations. I’ll give her your contact information and ask if she’ll contact you directly. Good luck.
The first time I gave blood, it was on my bike ride home from work, on a whim. The nurse, after looking at my veins, put on a strap to bring them out. When she returned, she exclaimed, “We have a squirter over here.” Thanks for the commentary. During the drawing, I started to feel woozy, got cold sweats and passed out in the chair briefly. Afterwards, I stuck around sipping juice and eating nutter butters for a bit.
The next time, I was ready. I drank a ton of Gatorade the day before, and had a decent sized bowl of oatmeal for breakfast. I rode into downtown (my daily commute from Decatur to Atlanta) and headed to the basement level of the Georgia Pacific building.
I informed the nurses of the problems from the last time and they assured me that they’d take it easy and watch over me. Drawing blood this time was a breeze, they drew it slowly for me. No wooziness, no cold sweats, no loss of consciousness. Afterwards, they had me stay in the bed for a minute, then sit up and when i was ready, I could go over to the snack table. As I noted, I was feeling like a million bucks, so presently I walked over to the snack table and grabbed some juice and a pack of Nutter Butters.
At this point, I started to feel a little wooziness setting in and put my head down in my hands. The next thing I know, I was staring up at six or seven people from the floor. I had passed out and tipped over forward, scraping my nose, lip and temple in what I imagine was at first a thunk, then a slow drag as my face slid across the office-style carpet.
One nurse was checking my pulse, saying “I can’t find anything, I can’t hear it”. To which I pathetically responded “I have a low resting heartbeat.”
EMT were called, and after about 20 minutes I was good enough to stand. My boss was called to pick me up. He ended up dropping me off with my wife, and I had the rest of the day off.
So, this may not be what you wanted to hear, but – NEVER AGAIN!!! Not even Nutter Butters can entice me.
You had me at “rest of the day off.” When’s the next blood drive and what’s the earliest I can give?
In the late 70’s I used to occasionally give blood to a Knights of Columbus blood drive at St. Stephen’s of Hungary Church on E. 82nd Street between 1st and York Avenues. The Red Cross would hand out the obligatory Fig Newtons and OJ, but the church would get some ancient Hungarian ladies to cook up an incredible baked chicken dinner. More incredibly, there was an open bar. Most of the Knights would go straight from gurney to bar for a shot and a beer.
How’s that for a blood donation anecdote?