National Rare Blood Club Gives Speedy Help

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31863, 16 December 1968, Page 24

National Rare Blood Club Gives Speedy Help

IBU

JOHN G. ROGERS)

Recently a businessman in New York City ’s Queens borough received a telephone call. Its effect on him was extraordinary. He sprinted out to a parking lot and drove his car as fast as the law and heavy rushhour traffic allowed to the helicopter pad at nearby Kennedy Airport.

A fast 14-mile flight carried him to Manhattan. He immediately hailed a cab and streaked up Park Avenue to Lenox Hill Hospital. Minutes later, technicians drew a pint of blood from his right arm and the resultant transfusion saved the life of a newborn baby.

The dramatic dash of the businessman illustrates the, spirit and activity of a remarkable organisation, the National Rare Blood Club. With heddaquarters in New York City, but with membership in every state, the club j comprises more than 5500 persons, ages 18 to 59. all :having one of the six known types of rare blood. And all -rare dedicated life-savers, pledged to drop whatever they are doing at a moment's notice, rush to a hospital that has an emergency and. literally. give their rare blood. There is never any charge for it. Mrs Samuel Steinsaltz. the jciub secretary, who presides over a telephone line that is iused for ”hothing but emergency calls from hospitals, calls the donors.

They Come Running "Their variety is endless." she says. "I've telephoned corporation presidents out of board meetings. I’ve called housewives} away from ironing boards, students from classes, waitresses out of restaurants at rush hour. Almost always they come running and, if one can’t, another will. “Recently I called a member, a busy lawyer, who said, ‘The trouble is I’m just leaving for Atlanta on business that won’t wait.’ I told him he was excused but he said. ‘Hold it. If I hurry this very minute I'll have time to stop off at the hospital on my way to the airport.’ And he did." Another time. Mrs Steinsaltz was urgently telephoning to reach a member with the rarest of all blood types I—AB Negative, which occurs in fewer than one person in 200. A life hung in the balance but luck was running bad —she simply could not find a member with the type needed. Just then came a call from a man. a stranger, who said he had recently brought his small son home from a hospital where transfusions of rare blood had saved him from death. The man said he had heard of the club and he felt so grateful he wanted to sign in to help others.

“You can guess the ending,” says Mrs Steinsaltz. “He had the very type I was so> desperate for and we sent him into action immediately." Founded in 1959 The National Rare Blood) Club was founded rather: informally in 1959 at an offshoot of the Associated: Health Foundation whose parent is the Knights of Phythias. a fraternal order. The reason was the increasing prevalence of open-heart surgery for which fresh blood must be immediately available in large quantities. Nearly 75 per cent of the | population have blood type O; or A Positive and, for them, there is no problem of a scarcity of donors. But for the six rare blood types, finding donors without advance organisation is often a difficult proposition, sometimes requiring frantic radio appeals. After AB Negative, the other rare types are B Negative, found in one in 70 persons: AB Positive, one in 25: A Negative, one in 17: O Negative, one in 16; and B. Positive, one in 11. “Since it started, the club has given at least 15,000 pints of blood." reports Mr Leonard Eisenberg, Associated Health Foundation president, “and that is blood for which professional donors get up to $lOO a pint. We help about 250 patients a year—all sorts of cases, heart surgery, Rh babies, accident victims, ulcers or other internal haemorrhage. In most cases we probably save a life. “There is no limit on how big we should be because there is no limit on the need for blood. I'd like to see us have at least 100.000 members all over the United States and a main office in every state." Storage Problems

While some emergencies must be treated with fresh blood, others can be handled with blood stored up to 21 days. But since a donor can give blood only onee every 60 days, and rare-blood donors are relatively few in number, it becomes impractical to try

to store rare blood against |< emergency. It might not ben needed for its 21 days of usefulness, then a large number i of emergencies could come’i up. Because of this, most): needs for rare blood are : immediate. < Not all the cases have the : dramatic elements of the ; hectic helicopter trip, however. For open-heart surgery): requiring large amounts—the': ) club’s one-case record is 22 ■pints—dozens of telephone calls are made from Mrs ) Steinsaltz’ command post to jtlie donors, and the blood is (given in orderly fashion within 24 hours before the operation. In addition, several club members always stand by at the hospital during the operation on the

(Chance that more will be ineeded quickly. ' Member spirit is hearteniing. True, some join believing that, should they ever (require transfusion,' they I might have an advantage as club members. But it is not so. -Only about 15 per cent of club donations go to member cases and over the years I not a single non-member Appeal has gone unfulfilled. Why They Give Says Joan Evans, a hospital employee and fashion model: "I’ve found that 1 have this something to give and 1 want to give it to people in trouble." And Peter Bier, a postal worker: “I don’t know why I’ve got this kind of blood but as long as I’ve got it. 1 feel I ought to share it." Though it is not required, a number of those receiving blood send cheques of gratitude to the club. Also, since the club is funded by the Associated Health Foundation. it is able in cases of need to make up lost wages or travel costs a member incurs while giving blood. But most times member expense is trivial. In one case, at least, membership in the National Rare Blood Club is really a family [affair. Ronald and Jeannette Widener, a suburban couple |with three children, are both members. Recently both were ’called at the same time to the same hospital though on (different cases: he is A Negative and she is B Positive. '! “Catherine—she’s eightI was in school.” reports Mbs Widener, “and since there wasn’t time to get a sitter for lithe little boys—Chris, four, and Eric, two—we had to Ia 1,«. almm'jW A ■* -J (La'i,

take them along. And they watched the whole performance. It probably was a good thing for them to learn about because both boys and their sister, too. have rare blood." —Copyright. 1968. Parade Publishers, inc.