Grant Moseley has been donating blood to help others for most of his life. The Warrens resident was among 72 people who donated blood during a two-day Tomah Health / Versiti Blood Center of Wisconsin drive at Recreation Park Sept. 28 & 29.
Since he had a high hemoglobin count, Moseley made a double red cell donation, which allows donors to donate two units of red blood cells thereby giving more product that is needed most by patients. “It’s good that you are helping someone in need,” Moseley said of his donation.
A double red cell donation is similar to a whole blood donation, except a special machine is used to allow the donor to safely donate two units of red blood cells during one donation while returning plasma and platelets to the donor and saving save time. Double red cell donation takes approximately 30 minutes longer than a whole blood donation and a person can donate approximately every four months.
Moseley bases his donations on words from the Bible. “For the life of the flesh is in the blood,” Moseley said reciting Leviticus 17:11. “So you’re actually giving part of your life to people, which is a good thing,” he explained.
Moseley said he has been donating blood for about 40 years, including dual red donations the last eight years at local Versiti drives and plans to continue donating every chance he gets. “I think some people are scared of getting stuck in the arm with a needle, but I have always had a good experience with Versiti,” Moseley said.
Versiti is the sole supplier of blood to nearly 50 hospitals in Wisconsin including Tomah Health.
Versiti Blood Center of Wisconsin account representative Emalea Cogdill said Tomah Health blood drives continue to be successful. “Donors seem to always see the need for blood collections and are very supportive of their drives and understand how the blood that we collect at these drives goes to our community hospitals,” she said. “They always step up and donate.”
Cogdill said the 72 donors provided blood products that will save 207 lives. “These collections will help patients locally while easing the strain on the nationwide blood supply.”
Cogdill said the strain on blood supplies will most likely continue in light of Hurricane Ian. “Now with the hurricane, the blood supply is even more of a nationwide issue,” she said. “Blood collection organizations throughout the country have already mobilized and are supporting blood collection organizations in Florida with much-needed blood products.” She said on average, Versiti and other blood collection organizations nationwide had only one or two days’ supply of blood supply heading into the storm.
Cogdill said donors in unaffected areas such as Tomah will make the difference to maintaining a stable and adequate supply of blood in the coming days. “Versiti is incredibly grateful for the continued support of the entire Tomah community in helping us provide a healthy and stable blood supply to our hospital partners, including Tomah Health,” said Cogdill.
Tomah Health marketing and public relations director Eric Prise acknowledged support from the Tomah Parks & Recreation Dept. for use of the facilities at Recreation Park for the drive. “We are especially thankful to parks & recreation director Joe Protz and his staff for hosting all of our drives this year,” he said. Prise said one final two-day drive for 2022 will be held Nov. 29 & 30.