Revered leader in blood donation field retires

Friday, July 26, 2002 | 3:05 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION: July 27, 2002

In her 18 years at United Blood Services -- a career that began in the dark days of the onset of AIDS and is ending in an era of unprecedented giving following Sept. 11 -- Judith Sligar has been an effective leader in raising awareness.

During her tenure at the group's offices in Las Vegas, Reno, El Paso, Texas, and Scottsdale, Ariz., she oversaw donor recruitment that resulted in the collection of 822,000 pints of blood -- 102,750 gallons -- the equivalent of the water needed to fill nine average backyard pools.

As executive director in Las Vegas from 1988 to 2000, Sligar also handled the administrative responsibilities of public relations, fielding questions from the news media and hiring staff.

Her accomplishments came as she overcame the potentially deadly hepatitis C virus that she contacted early in her career during cross-typing demonstrations at educational seminars.

Last week Sligar retired to, as she put it, travel with Richard, her husband of 44 years, and spend a lot of time with her four children, 10 grandchildren, two great-grandchildren and her bichon frise, Rosie.

"The thing I'm going to miss most is that I had the best job there is," Sligar said. "Each day I went home knowing that my community was a better place, because I helped to make it possible to give someone else a chance for life. I also worked with the best caliber of people, and I got paid to do it."

A number of her fellow workers say the community is going to miss Sligar's never-say-die attitude toward collecting the 300 pints a day Las Vegas hospitals need to meet patient demand.

"There is no question Judy played a major role in raising the awareness level for the need of blood in this fast-growing community," said Steve Chitren, the donor services director who was appointed to take Sligar's job.

"She has been an inspiration for the entire staff with her unselfish approach to her work."

Jan Dalby, a director of community relations for United Blood Services, said: "Judy's dedication has rubbed off on me. Because she cannot donate, I have donated blood more regularly to give what she would have. She has done so much for our cause."

Mary Ann Hobaugh, United Blood Services hospital services director, said that when you factor in the rapid growth of the community and its ever-increasing demand for blood, Sligar's contributions over the years are greatly magnified.

"We went from collecting 34,800 units of blood in 1988 to 71,438 last year," Hobaugh said. "Judy has made people aware that the need is so great, because the next seriously injured person could be you or a family member."

Patty Kuepper, a community relations manager for United Blood Services, said, "When convincing companies to hold blood drives, Judy really works the room -- and she has the tenacity to not let go until she gets them to agree to hold a drive."

Because of the initial AIDS scare, it was not easy to do that in March 1985, when Sligar took a job at United Blood Services after being a real estate agent in Ely.

"I can't imagine what it was like to convince people to donate blood before AIDS, but I learned real fast how difficult it would be when I started working in this business," Sligar recalled. "We became experts overnight, especially those of us who had to answer questions from the news media."

Sligar said she felt she was successful in getting across the message that a new testing kit and needle was used for each blood donation -- and that was the rule long before the deadly HIV virus came to light.

"Most of the media was fair in their stories and broadcasts about AIDS, but it was mostly reactionary coverage," she said. "A wire story would come out about another community, and local reporters would call to find out how it affected Las Vegas."

Although the fear of AIDS made her and others careful in handling blood, early on Sligar contacted hepatitis C.

"I never once considered quitting, and fortunately I had strong family support," Sligar said. "I decided early on that I would continue working and show you can live a productive life with hepatitis C."

She said she doesn't have the high profile of Naomi Judd, the country singer who has hepatitis C, but she has tried to raise awareness as Judd did when she retired from touring because of the disease.

"I felt in my own way I also could be a role model by not heightening fears of the disease," Sligar said.

Sligar, who stepped down to assistant executive director in March 2000 because of health concerns, said today the safety, testing and quality control of blood makes the donation process safe, but more time-consuming.

"Today's testing process makes it very difficult for a person to come in during lunchtime," she said. "In the past, donors could be in and out in 30 minutes. Today a donor has to figure he will be here an hour or longer."

And there are always new challenges coming along to further dry up the donor pool. Recently mad cow disease began taking a toll on the industry. Humans who are exposed to the rare Cueutzfeldt-Jakob disease from eating potentially afflicted cows are disqualified from donating.

"This has affected one of our bigger donor groups, military members who have served in parts of Europe," Sligar said. "We believe we will lose 5 percent of our current donors."

The only effective test to determine if a human has been exposed to mad cow is an autopsy, she said. So, to be safe, all potentially exposed people are disqualified from donating blood until an effective test is discovered.

But with some losses, come some gains. And none was bigger than the generosity stemming from the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.

"There was a great desire to donate even though there was no great demand for blood," Sligar said. "Still, people across America felt helpless. They wanted to help, and many of them felt that giving blood was one way to do that."

Because donated blood has a lifespan of just 56 weeks, Sligar found herself in a position she had not encountered during her career -- turning away potential donors.

"We gave them pledge cards and explained to them that we had all we could use," Sligar said. "Later, when we needed blood and called back on their pledges, the response locally was excellent."

In one of her final assignments for United Blood Services, Sligar helped prepare an upcoming blood drive that will pay tribute to the one-year anniversary of Sept 11.

Donors will write their name on a paper chain link that also will feature the name of a person killed last Sept. 11 in New York, Washington or Pennsylvania.

"We'll send those chains back East to show them that the victims were not forgotten," Sligar said.

Sligar's one lament is that she has seen the percentage of donors dip from a high of 5 percent of the eligible population to just 2 percent, making her success even more remarkable.

"If everyone who was eligible to donate blood donated, each person would have to give just one pint every five years and there would never be a local shortage again," Sligar said.

"We can only take so many steps to improve the quality of blood. What we have to do now is work a lot harder to assure an adequate quantity."

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