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Black blood donors are desperately needed, so I donated for the first time

Lindsey Leake, Treasure Coast Newspapers
·8 min read

Don’t faint, don’t faint.

I mentally repeat the words with each squeeze of the stress ball, willing myself to remain conscious. The phlebotomist has tried to ensure that I do: propped up my feet, cradled an ice pack behind my neck, gave me a can of Coke (which, in my reclined position, I spilled down my shirt).

The tangle of tubes stemming from a needle in the crook of my right arm darkens. Presumably, clinical machinery beeps and whirs, but I’m too focused on not passing out to listen.

I brace myself for the tingling, the slowed heart rate, the vertigo, the nausea. And worst of all, the tunnel vision. The last time I fainted, I regained consciousness on a concrete pool deck, concussed, to the sound of faraway sirens I knew were blaring for me.

Fulvia Gallimore, a phlebotomist at the OneBlood donor center in Vero Beach, prepares two bags of packed red blood cells for shipment Thursday, March 19, 2020, as the need for blood donations rises due to the coronavirus outbreak. "We can maximize a donor's potential by seating their blood type," said Larry Thompson, team leader at the center. "For example, certain blood types yield better red blood cells or plasma. We're always looking for someone to donate platelets because they only have a shelf-life of five days."

Needles and blood don’t bother me; I’ve just been a fainter since I was a little girl. It’s why I’ve never donated blood before today.

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Suddenly the needle is out, a bandage in its place.

“You want to hold it?” asks Michelle Santiago, my phlebotomist at the OneBlood donor center in Stuart, Florida, as though I’ve given birth.

She hands me the thick, plastic pouch, containing a pint of my blood. Still warm. Such a dark red, it’s almost black. It is Black, because I am – half anyway.

That’s why I’m here.

95% of Black Americans don’t donate blood

There aren’t enough donors of African descent in the United States. Just 5% give blood, reports OneBlood, a nonprofit that supplies blood to over 200 hospitals in Florida and parts of Georgia, Alabama and the Carolinas.

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Reporter Lindsey Leake donates blood in Stuart, Fla., on July 15, 2021.
Reporter Lindsey Leake donates blood in Stuart, Fla., on July 15, 2021.

A host of reasons may fuel the problem, according to a 2018 literature review by Georgia State University researchers Ashley Singleton and Regena Spratling.

“Increasing (Black) blood donations is complex,” they wrote in the journal Health Promotion Practice. “Barriers such as donor ineligibility; deferment rates due to low hemoglobin; poor experiences with blood donation ... and mistrust of medical providers all raise substantial hurdles.”

Retaining minority donors is just as difficult.

“Experienced donors need to be continuously reminded that blood donations are needed,” they wrote. “Blood donations are often low on priority lists.”

The American Red Cross announced a severe national blood shortage on June 14, World Blood Donor Day. As COVID-19 restrictions waned, trauma cases, elective surgeries and organ transplants spiked, the organization said.

The country’s blood supply remained “dangerously low” as of Sept. 29, when the Red Cross said the delta coronavirus variant was responsible for an abnormal decline in donors.

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While the shortage may be temporary, the need for a more diverse array of donors is constant, said OneBlood spokesperson Susan Forbes.

“Over 70% of the blood supply is Caucasian. … It’s one of the major issues facing the blood industry,” she said. “When you live in a diverse nation, you need the blood supply to match the patient population.”

America needs a diverse blood supply

You’ve heard it before: “We all bleed the same color.” When a person of color requires a blood transfusion, however, a donor’s race and ethnicity matter.

Everyone is born with one of eight blood types: A+, A-, B+, B-, AB+, AB-, O+ or O-.

The letter indicates whether what’s called the A and B antigens appear on red cells. The plus or minus sign denotes the presence or absence of a protein known as the Rh factor.

A person with O+ blood, for example, has neither antigen but is Rh-positive.

“People may think, ‘Why do you need a diverse blood supply? If someone gets the right blood type, isn’t that all that matters?’ ” Forbes said. “But it’s actually more than that.”

A and B aren't the only antigens that configure a person’s blood profile. There are over 600, some of which are found only among certain racial and ethnic groups, according to the Red Cross.

Such advances in genetic testing mean patients may receive more precisely matched – and potentially more successful – blood transfusions, said Deborah Cragun, director of genetic counseling at the University of South Florida College of Public Health.

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Deborah Cragun, Ph.D., M.S., director of genetic counseling at the University of South Florida College of Public Health.
Deborah Cragun, Ph.D., M.S., director of genetic counseling at the University of South Florida College of Public Health.

“It’s not saying that people who are white can never match with a Black individual,” Cragun explained. “Statistically, it’s more likely (they’ll) find a match the closer they are with their ancestry.”