Another Ten-Gallon Blood Donor For Newtown

By Kaaren Valenta

For 25 years George F. Silver has been a donor at American Red Cross blood drives. This week he made his 80th donation at the blood drive at Trinity Church, earning a small lapel pin that identifies him as a ten-gallon donor.

“All blood is important to donate, but some are more rare,” Mr Silver said. “I have type O negative blood, which is the universal donor. It can be used by everyone.”

Lynn Townshend, communications manager for the American Red Cross Connecticut Blood Services Region, agrees that type O negative is vital, especially in emergency rooms.

“Anyone who comes into an emergency room and needs blood is given O negative so it is very important,” she said. “Urgent care hospitals are required to have supplies of it.”

About 7½ percent of the population have type O negative blood, she said.

Mr Silver began donating when he was 24 years old when there was a blood drive at the company he worked for in New York. Over the years, he stopped, then started to give again. He said he is fortunate that the company he now works for, Tier One in Newtown, is supportive of his taking time away from work to donate.

“Hopefully my son will make ten gallons faster than I did,” he said.

His son, John Silver, 17, a senior at Newtown High School, donated his first pint at the blood drive at the high school on February 27.

Monday’s blood drive also brought out donors like Doug Ross, who was considered to be a new donor.

“Years ago I used to give blood on a regular basis, but I stopped,” he said. “Recently I’ve been driving a sick friend to appointments at Danbury Hospital and while I was there waiting, I offered to give blood. But they told me I had to go to the Red Cross blood drives, so here I am.”

Ann Czado, Red Cross account manager for the Newtown area, said that the critical shortage of blood in Connecticut has finally started to ease.

“We made goal for the first time since March 2002 in February,” she said. “Supplies are getting back up.”

Each day 12 blood drives are held throughout the state. Snow days pose real problems.

“Snow days kill the blood drives,” said Mickey Watterworth, head nurse at the Newtown blood drive. “Recently the response has been good — we’re getting over the hump — but when there are snow storms it usually affects more than one blood drive.”

Mr Silver was the second Newtown resident to become a ten-gallon donor this year. Sue Shpunt, an assistant town clerk, made the goal last month. The ten-gallon donors will be honored at a Red Cross dinner next year.

Anyone is 17 years old or older, weighs 110 pounds or more, and is in generally good health is probably eligible to donate blood.

The next blood drives in Newtown will be held on Saturday, April 3, at the Reed Intermediate School on Trades Lane from 8:45 am to 12:45 pm. A blood drive also will be held in May at Edmond Town Hall. For more information or to make an appointment, call 800-GIVE-LIFE (800-448-3543). Appointments also may be made online at www.bloodct.org.

Since January 1, donors must show identification before donating at the blood drive.