Festival Pumps Up Hispanics To Donate Blood
Published: Jun 16, 2005
ADVERTISEMENT
More From This Channel:
TAMPA - Vivian Quinones never donated blood until her niece, Gabriela, almost died.
The girl has von Willebrand disease, a form of hemophilia. When she was 2-years-old, she lost so much blood she needed a transfusion.
`It was very scary,` recalls Quinones, 43. `There was no blood available. It took the hospital 24 hours to import blood for her.`
Since that day in 1990, Quinones has donated blood 103 times - that's once every 56 days - the most donations allowed by Florida Blood Services.
`I made a moral commitment to God that day,` Quinones said. `I will continue to donate until I no longer can.`
The first Festival de la Sangre: Salvando Vidas aims to find more Hispanics like Quinones, now a recruitment manager for Florida Blood Services.
Hispanics make up nearly 20 percent of Tampa's population, but only about 5 percent donate blood.
`Every day the Hispanic population is growing, but we don't see an increase in blood donations,` Quinones said. `It is very hard for me to understand when I hear people make so many excuses not to give blood. We need to raise awareness in the community that donating is safe and it saves lives.`
Cultural Misconceptions
Many Hispanics are reluctant to give blood because they are scared of getting sick or afraid they may become impotent. Many Hispanic diabetics mistakenly believe that condition makes them ineligible to donate.
Reluctance to donate to a stranger is another obstacle, health professionals say.
`In our culture, if we have a relative or know someone who needs blood, we'll give every drop,` said Angel Echevarria, blood donor recruiter for Florida Blood Services. `But when it's a general blood drive, where we can't associate the need to someone we know, we don't give.`
Donors can give as much as one pint of blood if they are at least 17 years old and weigh 110 pounds, Quinones said.Hispanics have high percentages of O-positive and O- negative blood types, which are common to many Americans, she said.Bone Marrow Donors Also Needed
Festival de la Sangre also aims to boost minority bone marrow donations.
There are 5.5 million potential donors on the national bone marrow registry; about 400,000, or 7 percent, are Hispanic.Unlike blood, bone marrow is more compatible when patient and donor are of the same genetic makeup.
`If we had more Hispanics on the [bone marrow] register, we would be able to find more successful matches,` said Ivan Mangual, who recruits Latin bone marrow donors for Florida Blood Services. `If Hispanics knew of the need of their fellow Hispanics, I think there would be more of a willingness to find out more about bone marrow donation.`
Visitors will be able to join the national bone marrow registry during the festival. Bone marrow donors must be 18 to 60 years old and in good health.
About two teaspoons of blood is drawn from the arm of each potential donor and sent to a laboratory, where it is labeled and given a preliminary tissue type.
When someone needs a bone marrow transplant, their marrow type is matched with someone who has a like tissue type.
It takes just a few minutes to draw the blood and fill out the paperwork for registration.
About 1 in every 300 to 400 Hispanic donors on the registry will be a match for a patient, Mangual said.
Blacks face similar odds, and the outlook for Asians and American Indians is even more bleak.
`We are living in a multicultural world,` Mangual said. `There is not a pure ethnicity anymore, so every day there is a more diversified community, which makes it a very sophisticated process to find a donor.`
Reporter Cloe Cabrera can be reached at (813) 259-7656.
