MIDVALE UT- On Tuesday, November 11, Hillcrest High School hosted a blood drive in honor
of Veteran’s Day. The blood drive was organized by Hillcrest HOSA and it took place in the Gallery above the field house.
of Veteran’s Day. The blood drive was organized by Hillcrest HOSA and it took place in the Gallery above the field house.
The donations of blood are used for many different reasons. Depending on the blood type and its cleanliness, some of it will be directly transfused to patients who need a blood transfusion. Other blood is also kept and used for research.
The Blood Drive was posted throughout Hillcrest hallways for many weeks leading up to the event. This was to try to spread the awareness of how beneficial it could be in helping somebody else. By
Donating a pint of blood could potentially save up to three lives, depending on what it is used for.
Senior Danika Hickcox stated, “I heard about it in my sports medicine class because if I did it I would get extra credit, so that was one of the main things that influenced me.”
The services for this blood drive were provided by ARUP Blood Services of Utah, one of Utah’s Blood Donation centers. They had many workers on hand to help organize it. Although it
only took about ten minutes to do the actual procedure to receive the blood; people who volunteered were in there for a good hour or longer.
There was a check-in process that took some time. It took longer for those who have not donated before due to them having to answer a questionnaire on medical history. The process
started with the medical exam, followed by sitting down in the chair where they would then draw your blood.
“It took me about an hour to have everything completed because I had to wait to be called back, and then after I got my blood drawn I had to wait around for a little bit to make sure everything
went okay.” stated Hickcox.
After the blood was drawn, volunteers had to go over and relax for abotu 10 minutes while drinking and eating something to refuel themselves due to all of the blood loss.
“I would say that it was a good overall experience.” explained Hickcox. “I think it was organized pretty good, everyone knew what was happening and they had a system in place.”