The Collegian

Issue date: 11/19/04 Section: News

Media Credit: Karyn Gilbert Delta president Raul Rodriguez lies down as Phil Martinez takes his blood pressure. Rodriguez was one of the 77 people who turned out Monday to give blood during the second blood drive of the semester.

On Monday, for the second time this semester, SJDC and the Delta Blood Bank held a blood drive in Danner Hall. President of Delta College, Raul Rodriguez, attended and donated the precious red fluid. Rodriguez was one of 77 people who donated 62 units of blood. Thirty-four of the 77 people were first time donors.

"I've done it a couple of times. You never know when you're gonna need the blood. I think it's important to give," Rodriguez said.

"We have about 100 sign ups and we have a projection of bringing in 75 units of blood," said lead phlebotomist Phil Martinez.

"It's not so much that you're donating to the hospital, you're donating to the community. . .We service hospitals in four different counties: San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Tuolumne and El Dorado Counties," he said when asked about who decides which hospital receives a certain amount of donated blood. "This is just a mobile team that is able to come out here; we are able to be a little bit more convenient and have students come out when that can without cutting class," Martinez said.

"Reasons for donating blood vary from just sense of community or you might have a friend or relative who needs blood and your blood donation can be credited on their account.

The most common reason for not being able to donate blood is that the donator may have low hemoglobin or low iron in the blood. Iron is very important to the body and we take a lot of iron with the blood donation. This can cause a person to become anemic. People who travel into malaria-infested areas such as Mexico cannot donate blood. There are also a few medications which would prevent a person from donating. The donor's safety, as well as the recipient's safety, is our first concern."

After donating blood, the donor is required to stay at the donation site for at least fifteen minutes and drink some juice. It is also recommended to take it easy for a few days and drink plenty of fluids," said Moore, another phlebotomist. "Only five percent of the general public donate blood and that is a very sad statistic."

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