Blood drive Wednesday to mark Blaze Coffee Accident Awareness Month

Staffers from Coffee Memorial Blood Center of Amarillo, the organization that supplies blood and blood products to the hospitals and medical facilities of the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles, will return to Dumas Wednesday, November 8, for a community blood drive.

November is Blaze Coffee Accident Awareness month in the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles, and blood drives held this month are held in honor of physicians, EMTs/paramedics, pilots, nurses, dispatchers, and blood donors, the people who work every day to save the lives of accident victims and others who find themselves in need of life-saving assistance, according to information from Coffee Memorial.

Blaze Coffee was a young man severely injured in an industrial accident in Amarillo in 2009.  He lived for 28 days after being hurt, thanks in large measure to the numerous units of blood and blood products he received.  Though he did finally succumb to his injuries, his family was so grateful for the extra time with him that each November since his death they have raised money and partnered with Coffee Memorial to put on a month of blood drives in his honor.

Coffee Memorial officials say the holiday season, which is rapidly approaching, is always a critical time for the blood supply.  Demand rises as people travel more, and supply falls as donors become increasingly busy with holiday activities.  Last month’s drive in Dumas brought in 60 units, nearly double the average.  Coffee Memorial officials hope last month’s success is an indication of a positive trend.  Though supplies are not as critically tight as they were earlier in the year, according to Austin Frausto of Coffee Memorial last month, there is still a shortage of type A and O.  Type O is the universal type, given to accident victims and others to keep them alive until their blood can be typed.   

Coffee Memorial has to collect 125 units per day to meet demand.  Donations can be made at the organization’s headquarters at 7500 Wallace Boulevard in Amarillo or at community drives held throughout the service area.  The Dumas drive on November 8 will take place from noon to 7 p.m. in the Dumas Noon Lions Club building at 524 South Porter.  As usual, donors this time will receive some gifts: a Blaze Coffee Accident Awareness T-shirt and a free movie pass for Cinergy.

You must be 17 years old to donate or 16 with written parental permission.  Walk ins are welcome but reservations preferred.  Call 806-331-8833 or go to yourbloodinstitute.org to register.  People who donate whole blood can donate every 56 days.  Those donating plasma or platelets can do so more frequently.  Donating takes about an hour (The time making the actual donation is between 5 and 15 minutes) and people need to bring a photo identification.

Some people have been deemed ineligible to donate in the past for a variety of reasons:  those who lived in Europe in the 1980s or who served in the Middle East during the Persian Gulf War, for example.  But the Food and Drug Administration has changed many of those rules, and some of the people who were previously prohibited from donating are now allowed.  Coffee Memorial has established a hotline where those concerned can call in and receive confidential information about how the changes affect their individual circumstances and eligibility to donate.  The hotline also clears up misinformation that has been commonly believed about blood donations and who was or was not eligible to donate.  The number for the hotline is 888-308-3924.