PATIL ARMENIAN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Judy
Schoop donates blood in memory of her brother-in-law, Mark
Snider, in Ackerman Union Monday morning. Judy is a teacher at Taft
High School in Woodland Hills.
By Emi Kojima
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
When Stephanie Friedman, a junior at Taft High School in
Woodland Hills, heard her teacher’s husband got into a car
accident last October, she wanted to know how she could help.
After the accident, she tried to organize a school-wide blood
drive to provide blood that Mark Snider, who had third-degree burns
covering most of his body, needed for his treatment.
When the attempt failed and Snider passed away, Friedman
initially thought a blood drive was worthless.
“But then we thought maybe there’s something to do
after,” she said. “Even though he’s gone, the
blood needs to be replenished.”
Friedman, along with UCLA’s Student Welfare Commission and
UC Irvine, is now organizing blood drives to replace the pints used
during Snider’s surgery. The SWC blood drive began Monday and
will continue through Friday.
Families of patients who have used blood either need to replace
it or buy it at $140 a pint. Friedman said replenishing it would
make a bigger impact.
For UCLA’s Blood & Platelet Center, the money
isn’t as big an issue as having the blood.
The ideal amount of blood to have on hand is 1,000 pints every
day. But UCLA’s blood bank has about 700 units, if it’s
lucky.
Doctors at UCLA used 24 pints of whole blood in their efforts to
save Snider. Friedman said she hoped to double it by the
drive’s conclusion.
Though the SWC holds a quarterly blood drive, this one is the
first dedicated to a patient, where the collection would replace
blood used during surgery.
Last quarter, 267 individuals donated during the SWC blood
drive. Each person can donate a pint of blood.
Though patients usually need between 1 to 300 pints of blood,
the demand is increasing, said Linda Goss, community liaison at the
Blood & Platelet Center.
“We would like to be 90 percent self-sufficient,”
Goss said, adding that the demand for blood has increased and the
blood bank only collects 50 percent of the blood it needs.
In a year, 70,000 pints of blood products are used. And more
technological solutions for medical problems means using more
blood, according to Gross.
Partly motivated by personal experience, Siavash Farshidpanah,
the blood drive committee’s director and a fourth-year
physiological sciences student, is doing all he can to increase
blood donors.
“I scream, I yell, I beg, I cry,” Farshidpanah said.
“I do whatever it takes to get people’s
attention.”
He became interested in blood drives when his mother needed
blood during surgery.
“Why can’t at least half of these 30,000 students
donate?” he asked. “Two reasons: they don’t know
enough about it and what great consequences it has or they’re
scared. I think both of these things can be cured.”
The whole process takes about 45 minutes. The blood drawing
itself takes 9 minutes.
Anyone who is at least 17 years old, weighs more than 110 pounds
and is in good health can donate blood. Donors must answer
questions about their medical history, piercings, tattoos and
sexual practices before donating. They can donate every 56
days.
“If you’re afraid of needles, I tell them to look
away and think about three different babies that you can
single-handedly save,” Farshidpanah said, referring to the
statistical figure that one donation can save three lives.
SO YOU WANT TO DONATE? The Student Welfare
Commission’s blood drive will be held at 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday
through Friday in Ackerman 2414. Year-round donations of blood and
platelet can be made at UCLA Blood & Platelet Center in the
Medical Building 200, Ste. 665. For more information or to make an
appointment to donate, call the SWC office at 310-825-0888. Source:
UCLA Blood & Platelet Center Original by VICTOR CHEN/Daily
Bruin Web Adaptation by TODD SHINTANI