Numerous posts and tweets have been hitting the Utah scene lately concerning Phil Burn’s daughter, Serenity, being diagnosed with Leukemia. I blogged a couple days ago about the new Chip In Widget, created by Jesse Stay, that thankfully has been distributed amongst a handful of bloggers and is seeing a good up-tick in donations.
However, there is another way to help out.
I truly try to volunteer on a weekly basis (often posting about my experiences on the Cragbaby here, here and here), with my very favorite volunteer activity being donating platelets at ARUP. I have been donating platelets since last summer, trying to give every other week, health permitting. I find it to be the easiest form of service because by sitting and watching a movie (albeit with a needle in my arm) I can directly impact a life.
I choose to donate at ARUP because all donations are used at the local hospitals, helping cancer, transplant and traumatic injury patients. Platelets only have a shelf life of a five days resulting in a continual need. To date I have only been at the ARUP lab on one occasion where I was told they were finally catching up with demand, though they expected to be behind within the next couple days.
The UtahBlood site shows where units of blood are being used. (I am not quite sure if this includes platelet distribution.)
If interested in the Serenity cause or are looking for a fantastic volunteer activity, consider platelet donation. An appointment with ARUP can be made by calling 801-524-5272.
4 Comments
Write a Comment»Phil,
Thanks for the comment. I completely relate with you on the importance of platelet / blood donation. There seems to always be a shortage, but there are numerous people who fit the criteria for donation. Hopefully this blog post will push some folks into giving either blood or platelets as it really is such a great form of service.
Glad to hear your lil’ one is doing a bit better.
Best.
Rachel
Lance,
Thank you so much for that info. Actually quite funny that you found my blog and commented. I was just looking on the ARUP site last night and was in the process of emailing you pertaining some questions I have concerning the ARUP structure. Will email you shortly.
Thank you for reading and commenting.
Best.
Rachel
Hi Rachel,
Sometimes they include platelets and sometimes they don’t. Usually the numbers we collect pertain to patients using 3 or more blood products a day, so if a patient only uses 1 platelet and 1 whole blood unit, we don’t track it like we do patients that use a heavy amount. Daily usage at the hospital is normal but most of my numbers are based off of patients who use three or more units.
It’s hard to get an exact amount because sometimes the units can be divided up in to smaller units so I try to get the numbers as accurate as possible. Basically the number of units you see is the minimum. The actual used units is higher during the week.
Thanks for donating!
Great post and point Rachel! Serenity is on that list under Leukemia and O . Without donors, without access to blood and plateletes, she wouldn’t have survived. Donating blood and especially plateletes is a wonderful way to not only help my daughter, but lots of local people. If you are able, please go out and donate! And good on ya Rachel for being such a great donor! I’m sure you’ve contributed personally to saving the life of lots of people.