Wednesday, June 9, 2010

public service announcement

I have a confession to make.

I've never donated blood. I know how incredibly important it is, and I have tried several times, though not recently, I will admit. For a while, I couldn't, because I had lived in Luxembourg and Poland and there had been the whole foot and mouth thing (remember that?). I did try once here in DC and was turned away because I had recently been on antibiotics. Since then, I haven't tried again.

My blood type is B-, which is pretty rare, and I somehow never knew that.

I just saw this post on Rachel's blog and thought I should share-



Do you live in the DC area?

Do you have B negative or O negative blood?

I was reading SpouseBuzz this morning and came across the following, which I thought I would share here because I know that there are A LOT of DC Bloggers out there. If you can’t help, please consider re-posting this on your blog. My blood type is O negative, but sadly, DC is too far for me to travel. If you or someone you know can help, get in contact, make a difference!

Here’s the basics:We have a leukemia patient at Children’s who is using blood products VERY frequently and he has a very rare blood type. Only two percent of the population have one of the two types of blood he needs: B negative and O negative. In addition to those blood types, this patient also needed multiple platelet transfusions every day. We are struggling to keep up with his need for these rare blood types and yesterday, he just increased his usage.

If anyone is interesting in donating for this patient, they would have to come to Children’s Hospital in Northwest Washington, DC. To schedule an appointment, or any questions can be sent directly to me via any of the contact information listed below.

Thank you SOOOO much!!
Andrea Wolschleger

Donor RecruiterChildren’s National Medical Center
P: 202-476-3306
C: 202-495-9011
F: 202-476-6526
www.childrensnational.org/donateblood
“Donate blood for all the little reasons.”


I went to this link for the Blood Donor's Center at the Children's National Medical Center where they have a page where you can make an appointment to donate blood right online.

I just made an appointment for next Thursday at 3:45pm to donate.

Do you think you could donate as well? Could you maybe share this post too?

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I try to donate blood every few months, and will call to make an appointment-thanks for sharing the message.

Ohmygoshi said...

Ah, if only my mom were here! She's O- and tries to give blood as often as she can.

I'm O+, so it won't be useful in this particular situation, but I should definitely get out there and donate some anyways. Thanks for the reminder! :)

Janssen said...

I've never donated either. But I usually don't meet the requirements, which is fine by me because I HATE needles.