Blood Donation -- Service learning

1. I volunteered at an blood donation event that was being sponsored by my church (Church Of Christ) in Shoreline, WA. I had volunteered as a medical volunteer from 10am--2pm on May 13th, 2017. The event coordinator that was responsible for this event was Fernando Guaren Jr. and can be contacted at fguarenjr@me.com

2. The organization that had sponsored the blood drive was the "Felix Y. Manalo Foundation" and it's goal and purpose was to give back and help the community we live in. It's other goals were to also introduce healthcare to people of the church and the community around the church and to also provide blood donations for local blood banks and hospitals such as Bloodworks Northwest.

3. My duties as a medical volunteer at the blood donation was to set up tables, and provide/make/pass out food to those who did donate blood that day. I helped those who donated blood eat, and relax and made sure that they were feeling okay after giving them the care they needed.

One of the signs of the event that showed where visitors and blood donors could donate.

My badge to let the staff know that I was a medical volunteer and there to help any of the staff if needed. 

4. Volunteering at this blood donation gave me insight to how important it is to provide blood in order to support patients at local hospitals. I learned from one of the medical doctors who performed the blood donations,  how the blood is processed. Blood is separated into three components, plasma, platelets and red cells and these components are transfused into a patient who needs any of these components and that each donation means saving up to three lives. I learned that these donations make a great impact for many people who need blood transfusions, and how important and life saving it is to always have some kind of blood ready for a transfusion at any given time. This event helped me understand how important it is to also help those who had just donate blood because donors tend to have mixed reactions after giving blood (such as not feeling well, fainting, etc.) The after care (which i provided) of giving food to those who needed it was important so that the donors won't have bad reactions. 

In this event, some connections i made to some of the things that were mentioned in class was how important it is to analyze the blood calcium in a person's blood before giving blood. Before people donate blood, they must answer surveys, and a screening process to understand how the donors blood nutrient levels. If anything abnormal, such as low iron, infections, etc., the donor would have to be declined. I learned that from what I learned in class that it's important to know their history for any medical complications to make sure that they would have an easy time donating time. 

Human biology is interdisciplinary because in this event, I not only able to apply what I learned from this class, but I needed to be able to apply what I know of nutrition and other chemicals to understand how the human body would react to the blood donation and what was needed in order for an individual to donate blood. And without understanding such concepts, it would make it harder for me to understand why I would be volunteering for this event. 

5. Questions:

-Why is it so hard for certain people to donate blood? is it fear? 

-How does the body accept blood that doesn't come from them?

-How long can blood donations be stored before it cannot be used, does it have an expiration date? 

-What happens to the body if it was given blood that wasn't considered good?