Blood thirsty

Stephen Curran

Thursday, Aug. 11, 2005 | 10:50 a.m.

Henderson homemaker and frequent blood donor Kamie Baxter missed the call from her local United Blood Services clinic asking her to spare some of her Type O negative blood.

But there she was Wednesday, sitting on the vinyl, chaise-style chair inside a United Blood Services clinic as a plastic tube guided her blood on the first stage of a journey that starts at her left arm and ends up with a needy Southern Nevadan.

Baxter, 54, said she was never asked to donate but showed up at the clinic across from St. Rose Dominican Hospital on South Eastern Avenue less than a week after burying her father.

"I think that's one of the reasons I'm donating," she said. "I'm still alive."

To ensure that more people can be kept alive, Nevada needs more people to follow Baxter's lead.

A blood shortage prompted Gov. Kenny Guinn on Wednesday to issue a statewide Emergency Blood Shortage Alert, meaning blood banks throughout Nevada have barely a one-day supply of the nation's most common blood type.

In a statement released Wednesday, Guinn encouraged Nevadans to donate blood, saying it was "vital to patient care."

Dan Perlstein, a spokesman for United Blood Services, which operates five clinics scattered throughout the Las Vegas Valley, said efforts to contact regular blood donors are not enough to counter Nevada's historically low blood donation rate.

"This is something that I hate having to do, to go to the public and say, no one's coming in," Perlstein said. "It really is upsetting."

It's unclear just why Nevada is facing the shortage, which reached its sixth day on Wednesday, he said. The state typically is what is known as an "import city," meaning its dismal 2 percent donation rate requires blood be brought in from neighboring cities.

The national donation rate, by comparison, is about 5 percent, Perlstein added.

"People aren't getting the word or they just don't care," he said.

On Friday, the first day of the emergency declaration, about 300 people donated blood. That figure, while promising, quickly dropped to about 200 valleywide, Perlstein said.

The shortage means area hospitals may have to tap into their own emergency supplies, a tactic done only to preclude doctors from having to postpone or cancel voluntary surgeries, he said.

Type O negative blood, the type that Baxter has, is the most sought after because it can be given to people of all blood types. Type O negative is the type that is preferred for accident victims and babies who need exchange transfusions.

But only 7 percent of all people have Type O negative blood, and all types are needed, officials said.

About 12 people had donated blood to the Eastern Avenue clinic by about 3:30 Wednesday afternoon, supervisor James Mahoney said. And, while that number was expected to increase after 5 p.m., it would still not be enough, he said.

Donating blood is part of 53-year-old Brenda Hughes' monthly routine. A retired lab technician herself, Hughes said it provides her a chance to contribute to her community while relaxing with a novel during the roughly 40-minute procedure.

"I'm sure everybody does it for their own reasons," Hughes said. "It's not bad. I brought my book."

Hughes and Baxter are just shy of being what technicians who work at the clinic say are "extra-regular" donors who donate more than once a month, technician Susan McDonald said.

Others, including 39-year-old casino engineer Kenneth Sullivan, said the clinic's persistent efforts drive him and his wife to donate roughly once every three months. Sullivan left his job at Terrible's casino on Paradise Road a half-hour early to donate, he said.

"They've called a couple days this week," Sullivan said. "They're not shy about calling ... I think it's just that people are just too damn busy. They probably don't realize there's a shortage."