A student braces herself as a doctor prepares to take her blood. (Brennen Cage)
If you missed the big blue Carter Blood Care buses parked by the Flagpole this week, don’t worry.
Even though the APO-sponsored blood drive for this week is over, Carter Blood Care is always looking for donors.
According to the organization’s Web site, donors can give blood once every 56 days. The entire process takes about 30 to 45 minutes.
“I think it’s important to donate blood, because a person never knows when they or one of their family members will be in an accident and might need blood,” said Madeleine Linnard, public relations officer for Alpha Phi Omega.
Though Linnard didn’t have exact numbers for how many people made it to the blood drive, she said the group “did really well.”
“Usually we have the blood drive for the entire week,” she said, “so considering we only had three days this time we got a good number of donations.”
If you’re in the do-gooder spirit, there are a few things you need to know before heading out to donate.
There are a lot of factors that can disqualify potential donors. They must be at least 17 years old and weigh 110 pounds. If potential donors are taking antibiotics, Accutane, Propecia or Proscar, they can’t give blood. (Birth control pills, vitamins, allergy medicine, blood pressure medicine, cholesterol medication and female hormones are all okay.)
If you’re into body art, you might have to wait. Tattoos have to be from a licensed Texas facility; if not, there’s a waiting period of a year (and out-of-staters are out of luck in this category, too).
The peripatetic would-be donor needs to be cautious, as well. People who have spent more than five years in Europe since 1980 or three months in the United Kingdom between 1980 and 1996 are permanently disqualified.
There are other common-sense disqualifiers. Donors can’t have AIDS or HIV, history of heart attack, illicit drug use, lymphoma, leukemia or melanoma.
Lastly, don’t forget a government or school ID if you’re a first-time donor.
-Compiled by Daily Campus staffers
SMU student Stephanie McCranie gives blood at the “Carter Care Blood Drive” sponsored by APO. (Brennen Cage)
