Published: August 22, 2008 04:08 pm            

Blood needed to save little boy’s life

PRINCETON — The American Red Cross always asks blood donors to give the gift of life. This weekend, the organization wants them to meet the little boy they just might save.

Ethan Perkins is 3 1/2 years old and has been living with cancer the last year, battling leukemia for the chance to grow up.

Almost exactly a year ago, Ethan’s parents noticed something was wrong with their little boy. According to their online journal at caringbridge.com, Ethan kept getting bruises that refused to heal properly.

Ethan’s parents, Steven and Amanda Perkins, took him to the doctor, where test after test revealed troubling signs but few answers. Finally, they got the word that Ethan had acute lymphocytic leukemia, or ALL.

He was diagnosed Aug. 17, 2007.

A year later, Ethan is standing strong in the face of the illness that threatens him daily, but the treatment and trials associated with cancer have taken their tolls.

“Today, so far, is a bittersweet day ... Bitter because my son and so many other kids have or had evil cancer, sweet because he is doing awesome,” Ethan’s mom Amanda, wrote. “This first year has been challenging, but he's done so great. We are so very thankful for that.”

Leukemia is a malignant cancer that targets bone marrow and blood, and he’s undergone numerous blood and platelet transfusions already as part of his recovery. There’s a likelihood he will need more.

This weekend, the American Red Cross is hosting a blood drive in his honor. The event is set for Maranatha Baptist Church on Oakvale Road, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

Stories like Ethan’s are what inspires the Red Cross’s Troy Stiffler to keep coordinating blood drives and encouraging donors to step forward and give pints of life.

“If you could see the lives that it touches, if you could ride with me for one day and see what I see, you’d understand,” he said this week during an extremely slow drive at the Red Cross headquarters on Bland Street in Bluefield. “If it was your loved one that needed blood, you’d be the first one in line to give.”

Every two seconds, someone in America has a blood or blood product transfusion. For the average American who lives to be 70 years old, the Red Cross estimates there’s a 90 percent chance he or she will require a blood transfusion or blood products at some point. While the need remains steady, the number of donors often dips to dangerous levels.

Stiffler said 50 percent of Americans are eligible to donate blood, but of those possible contributors, only 5 percent actually do it.

Tuesday, nearly three hours into the Bluefield blood drive, only three donors had set foot inside the Red Cross doors. One of those was declined due to a medical condition. The results were disappointing, especially considering Stiffler said there were about 190 donors within a 10-mile radius of the drive.

The Red Cross region that includes Mercer, McDowell, Summers, Tazewell and Giles counties, covers 43 counties in all, and Stiffler said the region uses approximately 300 units of blood each day.

Some days those units may go to many different recipients, and some days one patient may use half that daily average.

One 23-year-old patient Stiffler recalled nearly died in a Summers County motorcycle crash. That single patient required 130 units of blood.

“It took 130 people willing to donate to save that boy’s life,” Stiffler said.

Locally, Stiffler said the Red Cross is facing a critical need for donors with the blood types of O-positive and O-negative.

As of Tuesday morning, he said the region was down to a day’s supply of those types.

“This morning, there was just a little over 100 units between the two,” he said.

Both types are extremely important. O-positive patients may only receive transfusions from O-positive donors, and O-negative is always in high demand, because it is known as the universal donor.

Everyday obligations, inconvenience and a fear of needles deter donors.

Healthy individuals may give blood six times per year, but Stiffler said the average donor only contributes 1.2 times annually. Summer is often the most difficult time to get donors, because family vacations disrupt normal routines, and the most willing donors are often inaccessible.

Twenty-one percent of all Red Cross donations come from high school and college drives, but most of those drive sites are not available during summer months.

Donors must be at least 17 years old in most states, but Virginia recently acted to allow 16-year-olds to donate with parents’ consent. In addition, donors must weight at least 110 pounds, have chronic conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure under control and feel healthy the day they donate.

Stiffler encouraged all eligible donors to consider giving a pint of blood to save lives.

“It’s one of the very few human-to-human gifts out there. Not everyone can give a lot of money to charity or do things to change someone else’s life, but most people can give blood and save a life,” he said.

In addition to Ethan’s drive Saturday, Stiffler said several drives are slated for the Labor Day weekend, including one at Sam’s Club in Bluefield, Va., and at the Mercer Mall.

As an extra incentive over the high-traffic holiday, Stiffler and the Red Cross will even help pay for donor’s gas money to get to the drives. Everyone who donates a pint of blood that weekend will receive a $5 gas gift card.

For more information on donating blood, visit the American Red Cross’s website at www.redcross.org.

        

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