On Tuesday, Nov. 15, Ybor’s HCC campus hosted a blood drive where students could donate blood or plasma to those in need. The Big Red Bus by One Blood came out to the campus and offered snacks and a thermal blanket with ONE BLOOD scrawled across it as incentives to get people to donate.

     When you get on the frigid bus, the nurses ask to see your ID and have you read and fill out a form to make sure you are eligible to donate. Some factors that could exclude you include: being under 110 pounds, being tattooed within the year, as well as unhealed piercings, being gay and other miscellaneous factors. An example of another factor would be a woman who had sex with a man, who had sex with another man. If all answers to these questions satisfies the eligibility, then the next step is to get your iron tested. Iron must be at least a 12.5 in order to donate. They are adamant that your iron needs to be high as donating a pint of blood takes a lot out of you.

     When all is said and done, you sit in the reclining seats and rest your arm, followed by a prick of the needle, and in about 10-15 minutes you are done and bandaged up. The nurses do encourage you to drink something high in sugar during the process and prefer you take as much time as you need in order to regain some strength after the process.

     Donating plasma is about a 45-minute process in which they extract your blood, remove the plasma, and then return the platelets with a saline solution. One can become very cold during this procedure as the saline is quite chilly.

     Overall, donating blood is an extremely positive experience and many people – even those terrified of needles – attended the blood drive as it was a way to help the community and save the lives of up to three people.

     If you are interested in donating or learning more about One Blood visit https://www.oneblood.org/