June 11, 2024 • 28 mins
What if your simple act of kindness could save a life? Join us as we spotlight the critical importance of blood donation in honor of World Blood Donor Day on June 14th. Through a deeply personal narrative, we share how blood donations extended my mother's life during her battle with leukemia, inspiring me to start donating platelets myself. Our guest, Pat Michaels from OneBlood, sheds light on the organization's mission and operations across multiple states, offering valuable insights into the logistics of blood collection and distribution, and the pivotal role regular donors play.
Don't miss out on hearing about the Share Your Power Podcast, featuring inspirational stories that make the topic even more relatable and inspiring.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Perspective.
Perspective is spelledP-E-R-S-P-E-C-T-I-V-E.
Perspective the 30,000 footview.
Perspective put on someoneelse's shoes.
Perspective can also refer tothe state of existing in space
(00:20):
or one's view of the world.
Perspective R-E-A audio.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Reemployability.
My mom passed away fromleukemia a little over five
years ago and as her diseaseprogressed, I'll never forget
her telling my dad and I howgrateful she was for people that
donated blood platelets.
She had to get platelets prettyfrequently and they were one of
the reasons why she was with usas long as she was while she
was sick.
So I guess in a way I'mgrateful to those people as well
(00:50):
.
It inspired me to donateplatelets after she was gone.
People have all kinds ofreasons for making blood
donations.
Some are personal, some arejust because they always have,
and for some it's simply peerpressure.
I see that when the blood buscomes to re employability.
So why all the blood talk?
Well, june 14th is World BloodDonor Day, and this year marks
(01:13):
20 years of celebrating thegiving.
According to the WHO website,the objectives of World Blood
Donor Day are fourfold To thankand recognize the millions of
voluntary blood donors who havecontributed to the health and
well-being of millions of peoplearound the world.
To showcase the achievementsand challenges of national blood
programs and share bestpractices and lessons learned.
(01:35):
To highlight the continuousneed for regular, unpaid blood
donations.
To achieve universal access tosafe blood transfusion.
And, finally, to promote aculture of regular blood
donation among young people andthe general public and increase
the diversity and sustainabilityof the blood donor pool.
What's interesting is when I wasroaming the halls here at
(01:57):
Reemployability in an effort toget some sound bites as to why
folks around here donate, I wasgreeted with expressions that
said everything from none ofyour business to I really don't
know.
So, even though I can't seeyour face, I'm interested to
know do you donate blood?
Why do you, or don't you?
In an effort to do our part andhelp promote blood donation,
(02:18):
I've invited Pat Michaels withOneBlood, an organization that
provides blood services inFlorida, georgia and the
Carolinas, to talk with us so wecan learn more about their
mission and blood donations as awhole.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Blood donation is a voluntary procedure that can
help save the lives of others.
There are several types ofblood donation which help meet
different medical needs.
In whole blood donation youdonate about a pint of whole
blood that is then separatedinto components like red cells,
plasma and platelets.
During apheresis you are hookedup to a machine that can
collect in separate componentsand return unused components
(02:53):
back to you.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Pat Michaels is the director of media and public
relations with OneBlood.
Oneblood is an organizationthat serves five states in the
southeast for blood donations.
Pat, thanks so much for beingon RAA Audio.
It's a pleasure to see you andspeak with you.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Yeah, thanks, todd, it's a pleasure here.
Thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
So, oneblood, we're in Florida and I know you're in
Orlando, we're in Tampa, and soOneBlood has been in my blood
for years and years, and yearssince we've been here.
So you're the organization thathandles blood donations in
Florida and Georgia, theCarolinas and Alabama also,
right?
Speaker 3 (03:31):
That's right.
Yeah, we started out as somesmaller individual blood centers
.
The one that you probably havegone to originally was called
Florida Blood Services and thenwe merged with another blood
center in Orlando calledFlorida's Blood Centers, and one
is Miami called Community.
I won't bore you with all of it.
And then we continued withJacksonville, tallahassee,
(03:52):
pensacola, parts of Georgia,north Carolina, south Carolina,
and we also do blood drives inAlabama.
So now OneBlood is the secondlargest independent, non-profit
blood center in the country.
The American Red Cross is thelargest.
Then we have two other big bloodcenters, so it allows us to
(04:14):
have the ability to take blooddonations over a large area,
which means that we're moreefficient.
We have economy of scales in somany ways.
We have laboratories inmultiple states that operate 24
hours a day, seven days a week,and people wonder when they get
on the big red bus or go into adonor center, where's it going?
(04:36):
Well, what happens to my blooddonation?
And that's been our effort overthe last few years to let
people, let donors, know wheretheir blood donation is going
and how it's being used, andalso how they can best donate.
And you know you have done thatin your donation career.
You know you've given plateletsand also whole blood.
(04:59):
So there are different ways todo it and that's our mission,
that's my mission is to letpeople know about it.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
So June 14th is World Blood Donor Day.
It's the 20 year anniversaryand we talked a little bit about
earlier on the podcast.
I mentioned a little bit aboutthe WHO's website and their
explanation is kind of the whybehind that.
But locally and I'm glad youmentioned a couple things there
you know you go, you say the bigred bus.
(05:28):
If you're in other parts of thecountry you're not familiar
that's.
That's like the iconic symbolof one blood.
It is.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
We have all over we have asked people uh, you know,
in focus groups in the past,where had where'd you donate?
You know, uh, and they'll say,well, I donated on somewhere,
some blood center, but I'm not.
Well, what did you donate onthe Big Red Boss?
So actually it really is theicon of the center.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
You see them rolling all over the place, over the Bay
Area, central Florida, themultiple places in all five
States, yeah, so, um, what youdo specifically for these five
States is very similar to, I'msure, what other organizations
across the country do, right?
So, so, even though, eventhough you're located in these
five States, um, really, whatwe're going to talk about is
(06:17):
probably a very similar processto any place else.
If I were to donate in LosAngeles or in Chicago, in Kansas
City, right so, walk us throughthat process.
So I want to give blood becauseI feel like it's the right
thing to do.
Tell us who does it go to andhow does it get there, and
that's probably a huge question.
(06:39):
So I'm going to say roll withthat.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
It is, and let me tell you that OneBlood operates,
like you said, like other bloodcenters, we're heavily
regulated by the federalgovernment.
A lot of people may not knowthat we're regulated by the Food
and Drug Administration.
Sounds strange, but when youthink about it, blood donations
being transfused is kind of likea drug.
So we are regulated.
(07:01):
We have an entire departmentthat does nothing but making
sure we are regulated.
We have an entire departmentthat does nothing to me but
making sure we are followingregulations and that we have
SOPs for everything.
I tell people that we're themost SOP organization.
I know standard operationalprocedure to make sure that
everything from the time thatthe person comes on the big red
(07:22):
bus or donor center until thetime it goes out the door to a
hospital, everything is done bythe book and regulated.
And it happens 24 hours a day,seven days a week, because blood
donations are needed all thetime, because blood transfusions
never stop.
One blood serves 250 hospitals alittle more than that now,
(07:44):
across five states, and we haveto make sure that every blood
donation is maximized to itsfullest potential and goes to a
patient exactly when and whereit's needed.
And it's quite a task.
Blood centers operate underthat same principle, no matter
where you go, you're right.
(08:04):
So when you go into a bloodcenter or a big red bus and
you've never been there before,you're a first-time donor.
We're happy to see you.
We expect it'll take about 45minutes or so.
You'll go through a generallike a mini health checkup, a
screening, and after you do thatyou actually donate.
(08:27):
The first time you probablyyou're going to do whole blood,
because we don't know who youare, we don't even know your
blood type.
But after we know your bloodtype, then we will slot you in
the best donation process and Ithink you've been doing that
before.
You've given platelets as well,right?
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Yeah, so I've done.
I've done platelets.
I know that that is somethingthat's given to cancer patients
because of the chemotherapy thatthat reduces and I'm not
obviously not a doctor, but Iknow there's.
There's different types, so thewhole blood is like if I, if I
have an accident and I lose alot of blood, I may need whole
blood at the hospital, right?
And then the platelets are morefor people going through
(09:02):
treatments.
What are some of the othertypes of blood that is utilized
in other ways that people donate?
Speaker 3 (09:08):
When you give a whole unit of blood on Big Red,
buster or Dalmatian Center, thatunit of blood goes to our
biologic centers.
We have labs in severallocations and it's taken into
different.
It's called fractionation.
It's separated into componentsred blood cells, platelets and
plasma and that's why we say onedonation can impact three
(09:31):
different people.
So that's why, because it goesin different directions and
during the entire processcomputers know exactly where
every component is.
And also test tubes that aretaken at the time of your
donation.
You've probably seen those testtubes that they take first.
Those go to our laboratory inSt Petersburg.
It's the nation's largesttesting laboratory.
(09:53):
It tests all the blood from oneblood and multiple blood
centers around the country andonce it passes the test there it
continues through the processhere and then is processed and
goes to a hospital patient.
On average.
Blood types are all differentbut if you had to have an
average for it, probably threeto five days that it goes to a
(10:13):
patient.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
So what is talk about need?
Because it seems like we gothrough cycles.
We hear on the news thatthere's a big need for blood
donations and then we don't hearabout it too often.
I mean, obviously there's aneed all the time, but does it
fluctuate and like, how longdoes it last?
Like, if I give blood today,how you said, three to five days
, well, how I can tell you itnever makes 42 days.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Blood centers operate on a different principle than
they did years ago.
We used to call them bloodbanks because you used to hold
on to blood for a period of time.
Let's realize, the populationeverywhere has increased and the
efficiency of the whole processmakes it so that we're not
storing blood for a long periodof time.
(11:00):
And that's great because youknow it's processed and
efficiently given to thehospital and hospital patient
where it's needed.
So it never makes that 42 days.
It'll be stored for a period oftime and different blood types
move faster.
If you're O negative or Opositive and I don't know which
one you are it's going to gofast.
(11:21):
And the reason why is because38% of the population is O
positive All right, that's agood chunk of the donor pool,
and 7% is O negative and that'sthe universal blood type.
So the universal blood type isthe type of blood that can be
given to any patient when it'sneeded.
So the bulk of the donationsand transfusions are in that 7%
(11:48):
and 38% together.
So that goes very fast.
That's in and out.
Others like AB negative or, youknow, e positive, less likely.
But what we do is when we knowthat you have, let's say, ab
negative, for example.
We would then probably ask youwould you want to donate in a
different process, possibly togive platelets?
(12:10):
And then that's why we have aprogram called Target your Type.
Once you know your blood type,we communicate with you.
Would you like to do that, youknow, to give platelets and
maybe plasma concurrently?
Or if you're O positive or Onegative or B positive, we might
ask you to do double red cells,and I don't know if you've ever
(12:31):
encountered that, but in someof our big red buses and our
donor centers we do have themachines that can take two units
of red blood cells.
That does not mean we're takingtwo units of whole blood so
that you walk out of there withno blood.
It's really we're just takingthe red blood cells.
But what that does is that thatdefers you out from the normal
(12:53):
56 days of giving red bloodcells to the 112.
So that you're on a differenttrack.
So we have people who aredonating for different reasons
to target their type, andthey're on different schedules,
if you want to call it that.
But it's very efficient to doit that way and when you're able
to give, to maximize thatdonation.
It helps us and the hospitaland the patients.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Sometimes there are disasters that happen around the
country, around the world and,uh, people in florida may donate
blood for somebody out incalifornia.
How does that work?
Do all the blood centers kindof communicate with one another?
Um, I don't have to go tocalifornia if there's something
that happens there to give blood, right that's right now.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
Blood centers operate in a consortium as american
association of blood banks.
In america, blood centersoperate in a consortium.
There's the AmericanAssociation of Blood Banks and
America's Blood Centers inWashington DC that are
constantly communicating theoverall country's inventory of
blood components so that, ifsomething happens, we're able to
move it very rapidly to whereit's needed.
(13:57):
And I'll give you a coupleexamples the Pulse nightclub
shooting in 2016 in Orlando, orthe Parkland school shooting,
pensacola shooting back a fewyears ago, las Vegas.
Whenever that happens, bloodcenters work in tandem to make
sure that the blood center atthat location gets what it needs
(14:19):
.
The units are flown in.
I mean, we work with theairlines to make it as efficient
as possible.
So, yes, you're absolutelyright, because we understand the
importance of having bloodwhere it's needed.
Part of the problem that we findin general is that only 5% to
10 percent of the populationdonate blood, when 60 percent of
(14:42):
the population is eligible.
So we spend a lot of time onour social media channels, on
our YouTube channel, on ourwebsite and on the donors that
we have contact with to pleaselet them know how important
their blood donation is, because, as we've said it many times
(15:03):
during disasters and we've had.
If you remember, after thePulse night club shooting in
Orlando, there were thousands ofpeople standing in line to
donate blood, and that'swonderful because it replenishes
the blood supply.
But the thing to remember isit's the blood donors who gave
days before that disaster everhappened that were the ones who
gave the blood that goes tothose patients.
(15:24):
So that's why we encouragepeople to give on a regular
basis and not wait for adisaster.
It's good that they respond,yes, but unfortunately we'll
have them respond and then theygo back to a normal day of not
thinking about blood donation.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
So you mentioned eligibility.
Tell us who is eligible to giveblood.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
Anybody at 16 years old or older and at least 110
pounds.
16 and 17-year-olds needpermission from their parents.
Once you're 18, you're your ownagent and you can give.
There's no upper age limit.
As a matter of fact, I havebeen communicating with some of
our top gallon donors inOneBlood over the last couple of
(16:05):
weeks because we're thinkingabout doing our own podcast with
these people.
We've got people who are intheir 90s donating blood.
Some people think that's notpossible.
It is as long as you're healthy, you can donate blood.
So there's no upper age limit.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
What constitutes healthy, like if I have a cold,
obviously I don't want to go inand give blood.
Is there anything else that aperson might have that would
restrict them, or maybesomething that you've heard of
that people may have thatdoesn't restrict them, that you
might be surprised about?
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Yeah, so we will give you the screening, which will
take your temperature, yourvitals, you know, your heart
rate, pulse, your hemoglobin andyou know see if that works.
Then we also have thequestionnaire.
The questionnaire asks you alist of questions like where
have you traveled, um, you know?
Have you recently, um, you know, been exposed to any particular
(17:03):
thing?
Uh, that that then of coursewill, uh, you know, get us to a
another screening, uh pointwhere we know that you're okay.
But, of course, if we askpeople, if you don't feel well
and you're sick, you know, don't, don't present to donate blood,
wait until you feel well.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
I've done that screening so many times that I
always laugh at the questionabout being in France in like
1985.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
Yeah, yeah, well, you know, a lot of things over just
the last year has changed.
For example, mad cow diseasewas something that where there
was really no viable tests forit in laboratory.
So for a long period of timepeople who lived in England and
other places Ireland for examplecould not donate blood, and it
(17:48):
was really it was kind of toughbecause we had to have a lot of
people here who'd say I'd loveto do it.
Well, last year the FDA saidwe're going to change the
guidance on that.
You are now allowed to donateblood.
We also changed a policy thatgay and bisexual men are not
able to donate blood simplybecause they identify as gay and
(18:10):
bisexual, and that was kind ofan outcrop of the Pulse
nightclub shooting.
It took a while but it reallysped the process through the FDA
changing that policy.
They had basically what was alifetime ban for anyone who
presented as gay or bisexual,but then science was way ahead
of that questionnaire and theywere able to change that over
(18:35):
the last year.
So that was something that inone blood was actually involved
in that policy change with astudy on a two-year study in
multiple cities.
So that's another example of nowpeople could donate who
previously could not, also for along time.
You might remember if we'd askyou if you had a tattoo and and
(18:57):
there, uh, I remember there wasa year deferral on tattoos.
Now there's no deferral if you,as long as the tattoo is healed
and you've gone to a regulatedstate where tattoos regulate,
you can donate.
So the good example of openingup the pipeline.
And that's extremely importantbecause, as I said, you know,
(19:18):
with only five to 10 percent ofpeople donating blood, that we
really need people to step upand realize that they are
eligible.
And one of the things we'rereally concentrating on are
young people to let them know weneed them because the future of
the blood supply depends onhaving young people get in the
(19:39):
process, in the habit ofdonating blood.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
So you are.
You mentioned at the very startthat OneBlood is a not for
profit organization andobviously there are many
organizations across the countrythat do similar things that you
do Are, most of them, not forprofit.
I wonder if sometimes thatmight be something that makes
people hesitant about donating.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Yeah, all blood centers that operate under the
regulations of the federalgovernment and you can't operate
outside of it.
So you have to be what iscalled a not-for-profit
organization, because when we'reasking people to donate blood,
we can't pay them.
So we can give them gift cards,we can give them T-shirts, that
(20:24):
kind of thing.
So that's the principle behindthat.
So they are all not-for-profitorganizations, which we collect,
test the blood-separatedcomponents and then it goes to
the hospital.
So it operates under the sameprinciple for all blood centers.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
So, pat, you had mentioned the podcast and having
some of the older donors on,tell us about the podcast that
OneBlood is doing, how canpeople find it and if people
want to find out moreinformation, just about giving
blood as a whole, because, again, june 14th, world Blood
Donation Day we want tocelebrate those people that are
donating and encourage morepeople to do so.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
Yeah, the podcast is called Share your Power Podcast.
It's on all the platforms.
It's also on YouTube and on ourwebsite, and what we try to do
with this podcast is not borepeople with statistics about
blow donation.
What we do is we find thepeople whose lives have changed
or been saved, and you know it'svery compelling.
(21:29):
I'll give you just a fineexample, if you've got a few
moments here, of course.
A few years ago we had a littlegirl in miami.
She was pakistani and she umneeded, um, a bone marrow
transfusion and she was getting,uh, uh, she was getting blood
transfusions as well, but thedoctors uh was transfused, her
realized she had a reaction, uh,and they took more tests trying
(21:53):
to figure out what was wrong.
What was wrong was she wasmissing an antigen, and antigen
is a blood component and she wasmissing one that most of us
have called the Indian bee.
And because she was missingthat anytime she was given a
blood transfusion from anyoneelse that has the Indian bee,
(22:18):
she's going to have a bloodtransfusion reaction.
So we had to find somebody elsethat was missing that same
antigen.
And to find somebody missingthat antigen is like finding a
needle in a haystack, and itstarted around Miami and then it
went through Florida and thenwe found out about it in
(22:39):
communications from ourdepartment that handles this.
We have a laboratory that doescross-matching reference labs
what's called and they're likewe were having problems.
Can you guys help us Put thecall out?
And so we did.
We did a Facebook Live andwithin a few minutes it went
viral.
We'd never had anything likethat happen.
We were getting calls from anynetwork that you could imagine
(23:06):
BBC.
It was just nonstop.
It was a lot, but it was verygood because we got the word out
around the world, and so wefound four people in the world
who matched her.
That was missing that antigenTwo of them in the United States
(23:27):
, one in England and one inAustralia and we got them to
Miami as quickly as possible andshe was transfused, gave her
the opportunity then to findthat other person for bone
marrow match and her life issaved.
She is a.
She is a very happy little girl, but that was an all call an
(23:48):
example of finding, you know, avery rare blood type for that
person.
So we've had other instanceswhere people don't even realize
what blood centers do in thatrespect.
They do research, they do stemcell extractions.
We're highly involved inbiologics and blood component
(24:11):
exploration and also new ways oftesting blood and that type of
thing, because it helps us.
It helps us save lives,basically.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Yeah, and you know we hear a lot of negative things
about social media recently andwhat a blessing to have it in
that case, right, because I'msure in a traditional media
world that that message wouldhave never gotten out to the
whole world so quickly.
To save that, yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Yeah, there's no question about it.
I mean, social media did payoff in that respect.
You know, they saw a littlegirl, a young girl, who was in
dire need and they made the allcall and we found it.
It was just a, it was a miracle, to be honest with you, but it
paid off, and so that's why wethe other part of what we do
(24:58):
every day in my job is to telleverybody that we need a diverse
blood supply.
We need the diversity of theblood supply to match the
diversity of the population and,as you well know, in Tampa Bay
area, orlando, miami, we have anextremely diverse population,
(25:25):
diverse population, and that's afine example why, to match
people, in some cases we havecomponents of the blood antigens
that prevent them from beingable to take blood from just
anybody.
So that's why it's importantthat we have people from all
walks of life giving blood.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Yeah, and there's no such thing as synthetic blood,
right, it's not like oil, right,so we definitely need people to
do it.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
That is true.
It is the lifeblood.
I mean that cannot bereplicated.
I mean they've tried to do thatin the past but they realized
that it is absolutely the thingthat does save lives.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Pat Michaels, director of Media and Public
Relations with OneBlood.
Thank you so much for your time, pat.
I know you're super busy and Iknow we spent some extra time
chatting, but I really enjoyedit and your information was
super helpful and folks just godo it all right, it's a short
amount of time and you truly canimpact and save somebody's life
(26:17):
.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
No, there's no question about it, you really
really can.
You can sit there and get bloodand take you what?
A few minutes, 30 to 45 minutes.
It's the thought that you cansave someone's life, and we have
a couple of programs that we'renow giving feedback so that
people will know where theirblood's going, what hospital, so
they could see that.
And then sometimes in anotherprogram called Message my Donor,
(26:38):
we have the ability of patients, doctors and nurses to actually
send a note to the blood donorto say thank you, so you can
really realize you're making animpact.
Super cool, thanks, pat,appreciate your time.
Thanks, todd, it's a pleasure.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
My name's Jalen.
I work at reemployability onthe care team and I donate blood
because I know that I'm helpingsomeone and even if they don't
end up using the blood that I'mdonating, I know that I still
attempted to help somebody,which makes me feel good.
Speaker 6 (27:11):
My name is Alex.
I work in accounting asaccounts payable and collection
specialist and I donate blood tosave lives almost every time
the red bus comes here unlessit's like outside of my donation
time, I enjoy it.
I think people get hope, itkeeps people alive and I just
like to feel good that I wasable to help someone stay alive.
Speaker 5 (27:30):
My name is Jas and I work with re-employability as a
client service coordinator, andI donate blood because, from the
country I'm at and from myfamily in Haiti, I have several
family and friends who havesickle cell anemia and I know
how important it is to havepeople like myself, who are
willing to give back forsomething so important as this.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Pat said something that really stuck out to me when
he was talking about his Shareyour Power podcast.
He said they find people whoselives have been changed.
So I invite you to changesomeone's life today.
Schedule a time to give bloodand smile when you're talking to
somebody on the phone.
Both will absolutely do thetrick.
Thanks for listening to REAAudio.
(28:11):
Please make sure to follow uson Spotify or Apple Podcasts or
Stitcher or wherever you getyour podcasts.
We appreciate you.
Have a great rest of your week.
Perspective.
Perspective is spelledP-E-R-S-P-E-C-T-I-V-E.
Perspective the 30,000 footview.
Perspective put on someoneelse's shoes.
Perspective can also refer tothe state of existing in space
(00:20):
or one's view of the world.
Perspective R-E-A audio.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Reemployability.
My mom passed away fromleukemia a little over five
years ago and as her diseaseprogressed, I'll never forget
her telling my dad and I howgrateful she was for people that
donated blood platelets.
She had to get platelets prettyfrequently and they were one of
the reasons why she was with usas long as she was while she
was sick.
So I guess in a way I'mgrateful to those people as well
(00:50):
.
It inspired me to donateplatelets after she was gone.
People have all kinds ofreasons for making blood
donations.
Some are personal, some arejust because they always have,
and for some it's simply peerpressure.
I see that when the blood buscomes to re employability.
So why all the blood talk?
Well, june 14th is World BloodDonor Day, and this year marks
(01:13):
20 years of celebrating thegiving.
According to the WHO website,the objectives of World Blood
Donor Day are fourfold To thankand recognize the millions of
voluntary blood donors who havecontributed to the health and
well-being of millions of peoplearound the world.
To showcase the achievementsand challenges of national blood
programs and share bestpractices and lessons learned.
(01:35):
To highlight the continuousneed for regular, unpaid blood
donations.
To achieve universal access tosafe blood transfusion.
And, finally, to promote aculture of regular blood
donation among young people andthe general public and increase
the diversity and sustainabilityof the blood donor pool.
What's interesting is when I wasroaming the halls here at
(01:57):
Reemployability in an effort toget some sound bites as to why
folks around here donate, I wasgreeted with expressions that
said everything from none ofyour business to I really don't
know.
So, even though I can't seeyour face, I'm interested to
know do you donate blood?
Why do you, or don't you?
In an effort to do our part andhelp promote blood donation,
(02:18):
I've invited Pat Michaels withOneBlood, an organization that
provides blood services inFlorida, georgia and the
Carolinas, to talk with us so wecan learn more about their
mission and blood donations as awhole.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Blood donation is a voluntary procedure that can
help save the lives of others.
There are several types ofblood donation which help meet
different medical needs.
In whole blood donation youdonate about a pint of whole
blood that is then separatedinto components like red cells,
plasma and platelets.
During apheresis you are hookedup to a machine that can
collect in separate componentsand return unused components
(02:53):
back to you.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Pat Michaels is the director of media and public
relations with OneBlood.
Oneblood is an organizationthat serves five states in the
southeast for blood donations.
Pat, thanks so much for beingon RAA Audio.
It's a pleasure to see you andspeak with you.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Yeah, thanks, todd, it's a pleasure here.
Thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
So, oneblood, we're in Florida and I know you're in
Orlando, we're in Tampa, and soOneBlood has been in my blood
for years and years, and yearssince we've been here.
So you're the organization thathandles blood donations in
Florida and Georgia, theCarolinas and Alabama also,
right?
Speaker 3 (03:31):
That's right.
Yeah, we started out as somesmaller individual blood centers
.
The one that you probably havegone to originally was called
Florida Blood Services and thenwe merged with another blood
center in Orlando calledFlorida's Blood Centers, and one
is Miami called Community.
I won't bore you with all of it.
And then we continued withJacksonville, tallahassee,
(03:52):
pensacola, parts of Georgia,north Carolina, south Carolina,
and we also do blood drives inAlabama.
So now OneBlood is the secondlargest independent, non-profit
blood center in the country.
The American Red Cross is thelargest.
Then we have two other big bloodcenters, so it allows us to
(04:14):
have the ability to take blooddonations over a large area,
which means that we're moreefficient.
We have economy of scales in somany ways.
We have laboratories inmultiple states that operate 24
hours a day, seven days a week,and people wonder when they get
on the big red bus or go into adonor center, where's it going?
(04:36):
Well, what happens to my blooddonation?
And that's been our effort overthe last few years to let
people, let donors, know wheretheir blood donation is going
and how it's being used, andalso how they can best donate.
And you know you have done thatin your donation career.
You know you've given plateletsand also whole blood.
(04:59):
So there are different ways todo it and that's our mission,
that's my mission is to letpeople know about it.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
So June 14th is World Blood Donor Day.
It's the 20 year anniversaryand we talked a little bit about
earlier on the podcast.
I mentioned a little bit aboutthe WHO's website and their
explanation is kind of the whybehind that.
But locally and I'm glad youmentioned a couple things there
you know you go, you say the bigred bus.
(05:28):
If you're in other parts of thecountry you're not familiar
that's.
That's like the iconic symbolof one blood.
It is.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
We have all over we have asked people uh, you know,
in focus groups in the past,where had where'd you donate?
You know, uh, and they'll say,well, I donated on somewhere,
some blood center, but I'm not.
Well, what did you donate onthe Big Red Boss?
So actually it really is theicon of the center.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
You see them rolling all over the place, over the Bay
Area, central Florida, themultiple places in all five
States, yeah, so, um, what youdo specifically for these five
States is very similar to, I'msure, what other organizations
across the country do, right?
So, so, even though, eventhough you're located in these
five States, um, really, whatwe're going to talk about is
(06:17):
probably a very similar processto any place else.
If I were to donate in LosAngeles or in Chicago, in Kansas
City, right so, walk us throughthat process.
So I want to give blood becauseI feel like it's the right
thing to do.
Tell us who does it go to andhow does it get there, and
that's probably a huge question.
(06:39):
So I'm going to say roll withthat.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
It is, and let me tell you that OneBlood operates,
like you said, like other bloodcenters, we're heavily
regulated by the federalgovernment.
A lot of people may not knowthat we're regulated by the Food
and Drug Administration.
Sounds strange, but when youthink about it, blood donations
being transfused is kind of likea drug.
So we are regulated.
(07:01):
We have an entire departmentthat does nothing but making
sure we are regulated.
We have an entire departmentthat does nothing to me but
making sure we are followingregulations and that we have
SOPs for everything.
I tell people that we're themost SOP organization.
I know standard operationalprocedure to make sure that
everything from the time thatthe person comes on the big red
(07:22):
bus or donor center until thetime it goes out the door to a
hospital, everything is done bythe book and regulated.
And it happens 24 hours a day,seven days a week, because blood
donations are needed all thetime, because blood transfusions
never stop.
One blood serves 250 hospitals alittle more than that now,
(07:44):
across five states, and we haveto make sure that every blood
donation is maximized to itsfullest potential and goes to a
patient exactly when and whereit's needed.
And it's quite a task.
Blood centers operate underthat same principle, no matter
where you go, you're right.
(08:04):
So when you go into a bloodcenter or a big red bus and
you've never been there before,you're a first-time donor.
We're happy to see you.
We expect it'll take about 45minutes or so.
You'll go through a generallike a mini health checkup, a
screening, and after you do thatyou actually donate.
(08:27):
The first time you probablyyou're going to do whole blood,
because we don't know who youare, we don't even know your
blood type.
But after we know your bloodtype, then we will slot you in
the best donation process and Ithink you've been doing that
before.
You've given platelets as well,right?
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Yeah, so I've done.
I've done platelets.
I know that that is somethingthat's given to cancer patients
because of the chemotherapy thatthat reduces and I'm not
obviously not a doctor, but Iknow there's.
There's different types, so thewhole blood is like if I, if I
have an accident and I lose alot of blood, I may need whole
blood at the hospital, right?
And then the platelets are morefor people going through
(09:02):
treatments.
What are some of the othertypes of blood that is utilized
in other ways that people donate?
Speaker 3 (09:08):
When you give a whole unit of blood on Big Red,
buster or Dalmatian Center, thatunit of blood goes to our
biologic centers.
We have labs in severallocations and it's taken into
different.
It's called fractionation.
It's separated into componentsred blood cells, platelets and
plasma and that's why we say onedonation can impact three
(09:31):
different people.
So that's why, because it goesin different directions and
during the entire processcomputers know exactly where
every component is.
And also test tubes that aretaken at the time of your
donation.
You've probably seen those testtubes that they take first.
Those go to our laboratory inSt Petersburg.
It's the nation's largesttesting laboratory.
(09:53):
It tests all the blood from oneblood and multiple blood
centers around the country andonce it passes the test there it
continues through the processhere and then is processed and
goes to a hospital patient.
On average.
Blood types are all differentbut if you had to have an
average for it, probably threeto five days that it goes to a
(10:13):
patient.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
So what is talk about need?
Because it seems like we gothrough cycles.
We hear on the news thatthere's a big need for blood
donations and then we don't hearabout it too often.
I mean, obviously there's aneed all the time, but does it
fluctuate and like, how longdoes it last?
Like, if I give blood today,how you said, three to five days
, well, how I can tell you itnever makes 42 days.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Blood centers operate on a different principle than
they did years ago.
We used to call them bloodbanks because you used to hold
on to blood for a period of time.
Let's realize, the populationeverywhere has increased and the
efficiency of the whole processmakes it so that we're not
storing blood for a long periodof time.
(11:00):
And that's great because youknow it's processed and
efficiently given to thehospital and hospital patient
where it's needed.
So it never makes that 42 days.
It'll be stored for a period oftime and different blood types
move faster.
If you're O negative or Opositive and I don't know which
one you are it's going to gofast.
(11:21):
And the reason why is because38% of the population is O
positive All right, that's agood chunk of the donor pool,
and 7% is O negative and that'sthe universal blood type.
So the universal blood type isthe type of blood that can be
given to any patient when it'sneeded.
So the bulk of the donationsand transfusions are in that 7%
(11:48):
and 38% together.
So that goes very fast.
That's in and out.
Others like AB negative or, youknow, e positive, less likely.
But what we do is when we knowthat you have, let's say, ab
negative, for example.
We would then probably ask youwould you want to donate in a
different process, possibly togive platelets?
(12:10):
And then that's why we have aprogram called Target your Type.
Once you know your blood type,we communicate with you.
Would you like to do that, youknow, to give platelets and
maybe plasma concurrently?
Or if you're O positive or Onegative or B positive, we might
ask you to do double red cells,and I don't know if you've ever
(12:31):
encountered that, but in someof our big red buses and our
donor centers we do have themachines that can take two units
of red blood cells.
That does not mean we're takingtwo units of whole blood so
that you walk out of there withno blood.
It's really we're just takingthe red blood cells.
But what that does is that thatdefers you out from the normal
(12:53):
56 days of giving red bloodcells to the 112.
So that you're on a differenttrack.
So we have people who aredonating for different reasons
to target their type, andthey're on different schedules,
if you want to call it that.
But it's very efficient to doit that way and when you're able
to give, to maximize thatdonation.
It helps us and the hospitaland the patients.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Sometimes there are disasters that happen around the
country, around the world and,uh, people in florida may donate
blood for somebody out incalifornia.
How does that work?
Do all the blood centers kindof communicate with one another?
Um, I don't have to go tocalifornia if there's something
that happens there to give blood, right that's right now.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
Blood centers operate in a consortium as american
association of blood banks.
In america, blood centersoperate in a consortium.
There's the AmericanAssociation of Blood Banks and
America's Blood Centers inWashington DC that are
constantly communicating theoverall country's inventory of
blood components so that, ifsomething happens, we're able to
move it very rapidly to whereit's needed.
(13:57):
And I'll give you a coupleexamples the Pulse nightclub
shooting in 2016 in Orlando, orthe Parkland school shooting,
pensacola shooting back a fewyears ago, las Vegas.
Whenever that happens, bloodcenters work in tandem to make
sure that the blood center atthat location gets what it needs
(14:19):
.
The units are flown in.
I mean, we work with theairlines to make it as efficient
as possible.
So, yes, you're absolutelyright, because we understand the
importance of having bloodwhere it's needed.
Part of the problem that we findin general is that only 5% to
10 percent of the populationdonate blood, when 60 percent of
(14:42):
the population is eligible.
So we spend a lot of time onour social media channels, on
our YouTube channel, on ourwebsite and on the donors that
we have contact with to pleaselet them know how important
their blood donation is, because, as we've said it many times
(15:03):
during disasters and we've had.
If you remember, after thePulse night club shooting in
Orlando, there were thousands ofpeople standing in line to
donate blood, and that'swonderful because it replenishes
the blood supply.
But the thing to remember isit's the blood donors who gave
days before that disaster everhappened that were the ones who
gave the blood that goes tothose patients.
(15:24):
So that's why we encouragepeople to give on a regular
basis and not wait for adisaster.
It's good that they respond,yes, but unfortunately we'll
have them respond and then theygo back to a normal day of not
thinking about blood donation.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
So you mentioned eligibility.
Tell us who is eligible to giveblood.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
Anybody at 16 years old or older and at least 110
pounds.
16 and 17-year-olds needpermission from their parents.
Once you're 18, you're your ownagent and you can give.
There's no upper age limit.
As a matter of fact, I havebeen communicating with some of
our top gallon donors inOneBlood over the last couple of
(16:05):
weeks because we're thinkingabout doing our own podcast with
these people.
We've got people who are intheir 90s donating blood.
Some people think that's notpossible.
It is as long as you're healthy, you can donate blood.
So there's no upper age limit.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
What constitutes healthy, like if I have a cold,
obviously I don't want to go inand give blood.
Is there anything else that aperson might have that would
restrict them, or maybesomething that you've heard of
that people may have thatdoesn't restrict them, that you
might be surprised about?
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Yeah, so we will give you the screening, which will
take your temperature, yourvitals, you know, your heart
rate, pulse, your hemoglobin andyou know see if that works.
Then we also have thequestionnaire.
The questionnaire asks you alist of questions like where
have you traveled, um, you know?
Have you recently, um, you know, been exposed to any particular
(17:03):
thing?
Uh, that that then of coursewill, uh, you know, get us to a
another screening, uh pointwhere we know that you're okay.
But, of course, if we askpeople, if you don't feel well
and you're sick, you know, don't, don't present to donate blood,
wait until you feel well.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
I've done that screening so many times that I
always laugh at the questionabout being in France in like
1985.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
Yeah, yeah, well, you know, a lot of things over just
the last year has changed.
For example, mad cow diseasewas something that where there
was really no viable tests forit in laboratory.
So for a long period of timepeople who lived in England and
other places Ireland for examplecould not donate blood, and it
(17:48):
was really it was kind of toughbecause we had to have a lot of
people here who'd say I'd loveto do it.
Well, last year the FDA saidwe're going to change the
guidance on that.
You are now allowed to donateblood.
We also changed a policy thatgay and bisexual men are not
able to donate blood simplybecause they identify as gay and
(18:10):
bisexual, and that was kind ofan outcrop of the Pulse
nightclub shooting.
It took a while but it reallysped the process through the FDA
changing that policy.
They had basically what was alifetime ban for anyone who
presented as gay or bisexual,but then science was way ahead
of that questionnaire and theywere able to change that over
(18:35):
the last year.
So that was something that inone blood was actually involved
in that policy change with astudy on a two-year study in
multiple cities.
So that's another example of nowpeople could donate who
previously could not, also for along time.
You might remember if we'd askyou if you had a tattoo and and
(18:57):
there, uh, I remember there wasa year deferral on tattoos.
Now there's no deferral if you,as long as the tattoo is healed
and you've gone to a regulatedstate where tattoos regulate,
you can donate.
So the good example of openingup the pipeline.
And that's extremely importantbecause, as I said, you know,
(19:18):
with only five to 10 percent ofpeople donating blood, that we
really need people to step upand realize that they are
eligible.
And one of the things we'rereally concentrating on are
young people to let them know weneed them because the future of
the blood supply depends onhaving young people get in the
(19:39):
process, in the habit ofdonating blood.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
So you are.
You mentioned at the very startthat OneBlood is a not for
profit organization andobviously there are many
organizations across the countrythat do similar things that you
do Are, most of them, not forprofit.
I wonder if sometimes thatmight be something that makes
people hesitant about donating.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Yeah, all blood centers that operate under the
regulations of the federalgovernment and you can't operate
outside of it.
So you have to be what iscalled a not-for-profit
organization, because when we'reasking people to donate blood,
we can't pay them.
So we can give them gift cards,we can give them T-shirts, that
(20:24):
kind of thing.
So that's the principle behindthat.
So they are all not-for-profitorganizations, which we collect,
test the blood-separatedcomponents and then it goes to
the hospital.
So it operates under the sameprinciple for all blood centers.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
So, pat, you had mentioned the podcast and having
some of the older donors on,tell us about the podcast that
OneBlood is doing, how canpeople find it and if people
want to find out moreinformation, just about giving
blood as a whole, because, again, june 14th, world Blood
Donation Day we want tocelebrate those people that are
donating and encourage morepeople to do so.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
Yeah, the podcast is called Share your Power Podcast.
It's on all the platforms.
It's also on YouTube and on ourwebsite, and what we try to do
with this podcast is not borepeople with statistics about
blow donation.
What we do is we find thepeople whose lives have changed
or been saved, and you know it'svery compelling.
(21:29):
I'll give you just a fineexample, if you've got a few
moments here, of course.
A few years ago we had a littlegirl in miami.
She was pakistani and she umneeded, um, a bone marrow
transfusion and she was getting,uh, uh, she was getting blood
transfusions as well, but thedoctors uh was transfused, her
realized she had a reaction, uh,and they took more tests trying
(21:53):
to figure out what was wrong.
What was wrong was she wasmissing an antigen, and antigen
is a blood component and she wasmissing one that most of us
have called the Indian bee.
And because she was missingthat anytime she was given a
blood transfusion from anyoneelse that has the Indian bee,
(22:18):
she's going to have a bloodtransfusion reaction.
So we had to find somebody elsethat was missing that same
antigen.
And to find somebody missingthat antigen is like finding a
needle in a haystack, and itstarted around Miami and then it
went through Florida and thenwe found out about it in
(22:39):
communications from ourdepartment that handles this.
We have a laboratory that doescross-matching reference labs
what's called and they're likewe were having problems.
Can you guys help us Put thecall out?
And so we did.
We did a Facebook Live andwithin a few minutes it went
viral.
We'd never had anything likethat happen.
We were getting calls from anynetwork that you could imagine
(23:06):
BBC.
It was just nonstop.
It was a lot, but it was verygood because we got the word out
around the world, and so wefound four people in the world
who matched her.
That was missing that antigenTwo of them in the United States
(23:27):
, one in England and one inAustralia and we got them to
Miami as quickly as possible andshe was transfused, gave her
the opportunity then to findthat other person for bone
marrow match and her life issaved.
She is a.
She is a very happy little girl, but that was an all call an
(23:48):
example of finding, you know, avery rare blood type for that
person.
So we've had other instanceswhere people don't even realize
what blood centers do in thatrespect.
They do research, they do stemcell extractions.
We're highly involved inbiologics and blood component
(24:11):
exploration and also new ways oftesting blood and that type of
thing, because it helps us.
It helps us save lives,basically.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Yeah, and you know we hear a lot of negative things
about social media recently andwhat a blessing to have it in
that case, right, because I'msure in a traditional media
world that that message wouldhave never gotten out to the
whole world so quickly.
To save that, yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Yeah, there's no question about it.
I mean, social media did payoff in that respect.
You know, they saw a littlegirl, a young girl, who was in
dire need and they made the allcall and we found it.
It was just a, it was a miracle, to be honest with you, but it
paid off, and so that's why wethe other part of what we do
(24:58):
every day in my job is to telleverybody that we need a diverse
blood supply.
We need the diversity of theblood supply to match the
diversity of the population and,as you well know, in Tampa Bay
area, orlando, miami, we have anextremely diverse population,
(25:25):
diverse population, and that's afine example why, to match
people, in some cases we havecomponents of the blood antigens
that prevent them from beingable to take blood from just
anybody.
So that's why it's importantthat we have people from all
walks of life giving blood.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Yeah, and there's no such thing as synthetic blood,
right, it's not like oil, right,so we definitely need people to
do it.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
That is true.
It is the lifeblood.
I mean that cannot bereplicated.
I mean they've tried to do thatin the past but they realized
that it is absolutely the thingthat does save lives.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Pat Michaels, director of Media and Public
Relations with OneBlood.
Thank you so much for your time, pat.
I know you're super busy and Iknow we spent some extra time
chatting, but I really enjoyedit and your information was
super helpful and folks just godo it all right, it's a short
amount of time and you truly canimpact and save somebody's life
(26:17):
.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
No, there's no question about it, you really
really can.
You can sit there and get bloodand take you what?
A few minutes, 30 to 45 minutes.
It's the thought that you cansave someone's life, and we have
a couple of programs that we'renow giving feedback so that
people will know where theirblood's going, what hospital, so
they could see that.
And then sometimes in anotherprogram called Message my Donor,
(26:38):
we have the ability of patients, doctors and nurses to actually
send a note to the blood donorto say thank you, so you can
really realize you're making animpact.
Super cool, thanks, pat,appreciate your time.
Thanks, todd, it's a pleasure.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
My name's Jalen.
I work at reemployability onthe care team and I donate blood
because I know that I'm helpingsomeone and even if they don't
end up using the blood that I'mdonating, I know that I still
attempted to help somebody,which makes me feel good.
Speaker 6 (27:11):
My name is Alex.
I work in accounting asaccounts payable and collection
specialist and I donate blood tosave lives almost every time
the red bus comes here unlessit's like outside of my donation
time, I enjoy it.
I think people get hope, itkeeps people alive and I just
like to feel good that I wasable to help someone stay alive.
Speaker 5 (27:30):
My name is Jas and I work with re-employability as a
client service coordinator, andI donate blood because, from the
country I'm at and from myfamily in Haiti, I have several
family and friends who havesickle cell anemia and I know
how important it is to havepeople like myself, who are
willing to give back forsomething so important as this.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Pat said something that really stuck out to me when
he was talking about his Shareyour Power podcast.
He said they find people whoselives have been changed.
So I invite you to changesomeone's life today.
Schedule a time to give bloodand smile when you're talking to
somebody on the phone.
Both will absolutely do thetrick.
Thanks for listening to REAAudio.
(28:11):
Please make sure to follow uson Spotify or Apple Podcasts or
Stitcher or wherever you getyour podcasts.
We appreciate you.
Have a great rest of your week.
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