GOT
BLOOD?
by Enci - August
8th, 2006
Last month, the Cedar
Sinai Hospital had their annual Blood
Donor Appreciation Reception, where
they honored all their new and old
blood donors. Stephen has been donating
blood, and platelets for over a year
now, so we were invited as well. The
hospital served some really awesome
food, and a few people spoke to thank
the donors, to share their stories,
and to honor the ones that saved their
lives.
The
founder of the Cedar Sinai Hospital
Blood Donor Facility
also had a few
stories to tell. What was shocking
to me to learn, that the first two
major incidents that require blood
transfer are car related accidents.
I'm not kidding. The number
one accident that the hospital treats
is car on
car accidents, and the second is
car on pedestrian accidents. And these
accidents usually require surgery,
where blood transfusion is needed.
With
that in thought, I think, that everybody
who gets a drivers
license,
should be required to donate blood
or plasma at least once a year.
Why not? I think it's a good
idea. There
is a shortage of blood, and there
is no substitute for it. The need
for
blood has accelerated due to advances
in medicine, rapidly aging population,
and a reduction in eligible donors
due to stricter requirements. It
is estimated, that one out of every
20
Americans will require blood transfusion
at some point in their lives. So
it's time to do some bleeding voluntarily,
because you never know, when you
will
need those bloody volunteers for
yourself.
Cedar
Sinai has always special programs
and incentives to
draw people in to donate. If this is
what it takes to bring out the good
in people, then so be it. Just bring
on the goodies, and get people bleeding.
The
Blood Donor Center is very nice,
clean, and the people are super friendly!
I was at a Red Cross donor center
before, and I wouldn't go back. Cendar
Sinai is not selling their blood,
they use it for their own patients.
You have trained staff taking care
of you, and many of them donate themselves.
The staff is pretty much the same, so they will remember you, when you come back.
And you will be served cookies and
juices afterwards :-) No matter when you
donate though, you will always get
a Movie Theatre Pass or a Meal Ticket,
and always some Raffle Opportunities.
Movie Theatre Passes are for selected
AMC or Pacific Theatres, and the Meal
Ticket is for Baja
Fresh.
Between
August 1st and September 16th the
raffle is a $50 Shell Card for donating
or for referring a friend (5 winners
will be drawn.)
If
you donate 3 times in a row through
October 31st, 2006, you will receive
a $50 American Express gift gard!
If you would like to
donate blood and win free stuff,
call John at 310.423.2637 or email
him at barrjx@cshs.org and if you'd
like to donate platelets, call
Karyn at 310.423.2416 or email her at hardawayk@cshs.org.
To find out if you're
eligible and about the Blood Donor
Center, go to www.cedars-sinai.edu.
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