Vitalant phlebotomist Ivan Puzon assists Mynda Smith, sister of Neysa Tonks, during a blood drive at the Clark County Government Center Thursday, Sept. 28, 2023. Tonks was one of the victims of the Oct. 1, 2017 mass shooting.
Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023 | 2 a.m.
When Mynda Smith turned on her television in the early hours of Oct. 2, 2017, she was presented with a sight she’d never before seen.
Camera crews captured lines of people wrapping around local blood banks, each waiting their turn to donate a single pint of blood that might be used to help one of the wounded victims from a mass shooting on the Strip only hours earlier.
Smith, the sister of Neysa Tonks, a single mother who died in the attack that killed 58 that night, said she started to understand the magnitude of the situation at that moment. Smith had learned of her sister’s fate the night prior, but it still hadn’t fully registered.
This week, in the days leading up to the six-year anniversary of the tragedy, Smith decided her continued healing from that tragic night needed to include donating blood. She participated in the Vegas Strong Resiliency Center Remembrance Blood Drive downtown.
“I don’t know why, but it was the first year that I just saw the need for it and I just wanted to be one of the people who gave back — (I) take so much love, so I wanted to give some love,” Smith said.
Smith sat on a chair in the Clark County Government Center showing people pictures of Tonks and squeezing a purple stress ball in preparation for her blood to be drawn. The 48-year-old was not only thinking of her sister, but also her father in Florida who is currently going through treatment for cancer.
He was also giving blood at the same time, she said, and they thought that it would be a great way to “honor the weekend.”
With around 800 concertgoers wounded or otherwise injured in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, Southern Nevada was in dire need of blood in the hours after the tragedy unfolded. And the community stepped up.
University Medical Center — Nevada’s only Level I trauma center — cared for 104 people who received injuries from the shooting, UMC officials said. Sunrise Hospital and Medical, the closest to the scene, reported treating 180 people who were at the festival, including 124 with gunshot wounds, in the hours after the shooting. Many needed transfusions to make up for the blood lost from their wounds, but the region has historically lacked available blood.
People flocked to blood drives with their arms open. Donating blood was the least members of the community believed they could do to help, said Sue Thew, a communications manager at Vitalant.
“When tragedy strikes, people are good and they wanna help. Amid the feelings of helplessness, I think giving blood was the way people really felt they could impact the lives of the victims,” she said.
Vitalant, the largest supplier of blood in Southern Nevada, has helped organize various blood drives in response to the shooting since 2017.
Thew said she remembered when uninjured concertgoers and concerned residents were lining up at Vitalant blood banks in the middle of the night after the shooting yearning to help. She also saw droves of people dropping off food, bottles of water and other necessities to help victims.
“It’s a beautiful way (to give back),” Smith said of donating blood. “When October 1 happened, I think we saw the need for a huge supply of blood and I know that need is still and will always be present.”
Smith said she would like to donate blood around Oct. 1 as a way to continue giving back, especially in honor of those who died that night. It also may become a way for her to heal, she added.
“I know it’s not a need of October 1, but being the fact that it’s this weekend and that I can do something when my heart needs to be fueled a little bit, this makes me feel good,” Smith said.
A significant need
The American Red Cross declared a national blood shortage Sept. 11 because the blood supply level had dropped 25% since August.
The “critically low” supply designation means the Red Cross must collect “10,000 additional blood products each week over the next month for the blood supply to reach sufficient levels and meet hospital and patient needs.”
About 29,000 units of red blood cells, 5,000 platelets and 6,500 units of plasma are needed daily, the Red Cross said.
Red cells from type O negative — also known as the “universal blood type” — are especially in demand since only 7% of people in the U.S. are type O negative.
One blood donation, which collects about a pint of blood, can help save more than one life, the group said.
Blood transfusions are a common treatment for many injuries, like those sustained in car crashes or shootings, and chronic illnesses such as sickle cell disease or cancer.
An estimated 6.8 million people donate blood in the U.S. each year, but that’s only about 3% of age-eligible people, the Red Cross said.
Donating blood generally takes about eight to 10 minutes. Those interested in giving are encouraged to check eligibility requirements and make online appointments through the Vitalant website. The American Red Cross also schedules donations at redcrossblood.org for its blood drives in Las Vegas.
Donors must be at least 16 years old, weigh at least 110 pounds and be in good health. Donors can give blood every 56 days, up to six times annually.
Some common reasons people can’t donate are that they have recently lived in or traveled to a malaria-risk country in the past three years; were sick on the day of their donation; have low iron levels; or take certain medications — such as Accutane, which treats severe acne.
Vitalant is expecting about 250 people to participate in the Vegas Golden Knights Blood Drive, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at City National Arena in Summerlin, Thew said.
Interested donors can register for Sunday’s blood drive at the Vitalant website, donors.vitalant.org/dwp/portal/dwa, and use “VGK” as the code.
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