The Inland Northwest Blood Center is appealing to the community for blood and blood platelet donations before the holiday season arrives.

INBC, located at 210 W. Cataldo, gets 35 percent of its annual blood donations from area colleges and high school students, INBC spokeswoman Jennifer Hawkins says.

 “When those students are out of school for summer, Thanksgiving, and Christmas break, we see a substantial drop in blood donations,” Hawkins says. “It is a 30 to 35 percent drop in donations. Those buses that go to the schools and campuses for the blood drives sit in the garages waiting for them to come back.”

“We’re encouraging past donors and potential donors to come in before the students leave for their breaks. Every donation has the potential to save three lives,” she says. Every day the INBC needs 200 donors to ensure a safe supply of blood. The center averages roughly 167 per day.

In addition to its main office, INBC operates two other collection centers in the Spokane-Coeur d’Alene area, at 12606 E. Mission in Spokane Valley and at 405 N. Neider in Coeur d’Alene, as well as one in Lewiston and another in Moses Lake.

Weekly drives are held at hospitals in Spokane Valley, Pullman, and Moscow. Mobile blood drives are held throughout Eastern Washington and North Idaho, using the organization’s mobile blood center bus known as Life Savers. The INBC has a calendar on its website listing all upcoming drives.

Hawkins says 30 percent of the INBC’s blood supply now goes to cancer patients. As a result, she says, there’s a greater demand for blood platelets than whole blood. 

Historically, whole blood has been the most common donation, and donors can give whole blood at all INBC collection centers and mobile blood drives. Whole blood collections usually take 45 minutes to an hour to complete. The most common uses of whole blood are for trauma, heart, and cancer patients, as well as fire and burn victims, Hawkins says. 

Platelets are used to treat cancer patients and for clotting purposes when patients are experiencing internal bleeding. The donations are by appointment only and can last up to two hours. Donors can give platelets only at the Spokane, Coeur d’Alene, and Lewiston centers.

Due to disqualifying factors such as blood disorders, previous diseases, and the use of medications, only 38 percent of the entire population is eligible to donate blood, which is why the INBC continuously appeals to the public for help, Hawkins says. 

“If just 1 percent more Americans donated, the country’s shortage would be over,” she says.

O negative is the only blood type that can be used by everyone for transfusions. Hawkins says only 7 percent of Spokane County’s population is O negative. Recently, Hawkins says hospitals locally and across the U.S. in the last year are trying to increase their O negative stocks to reduce the potential of hospital patients who need a transfusion being given the wrong blood type.

INBC urges medical professionals to conserve O negative usage as much as possible. The INBC also is attempting to maximize donations collected by doubling red blood cell collection. With a double red cell donation, a donor is giving two units of red blood cells instead of a single unit of whole blood, Hawkins says.

New technology now allows for blood to be separated into different components in a sterile, disposable kit. Two units of red blood cells are collected, while platelets and plasma, which contain minerals and water, are returned to the body with a small amount of saline solution.

Hawkins knows the importance of blood donations firsthand. Her son, Ryan Hawkins, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia just six months after she accepted the job as INBC spokeswoman in June 2013.

Ryan Hawkins was 13 and getting ready finish eighth grade at West Valley City School at the time. Ironically, he helped organize the school’s blood drive before being diagnosed. 

“On the day of the drive, that was when he was at his worst,” Jennifer Hawkins says. “He was vomiting, lethargic, moody, and his skin was bruising.”

Prior trips to the family physician revealed nothing. Hawkins then mentioned Ryan’s symptoms to now retired INBC medical director Dr. Robert Ranlett, who suggested he may have leukemia and urged Hawkins to take him to the hospital immediately.

“He was admitted to Sacred Heart on June 17 to begin chemotherapy, and our family pretty much lived there until Thanksgiving,” she says.

The cancer went into remission but returned in May 2014. Ryan needed a bone marrow transplant, which was performed at Seattle’s Children’s Hospital in August of that year.

“He’s used a total of 100 units of platelets and whole blood,” Hawkins says with tears streaming from her eyes. “That’s 100 bags of blood. Without those donations, he’s not sitting here.”

Ryan says, “The night before the transplant, I didn’t think I was going to make it. I was convinced I was going to die.” He says there were days that he wanted to.

“I’ve got four feet of tubing carrying fluids in and out of me to keep me alive,” he says. Hawkins was quarantined for 70 days to allow time for his immune system to rebuild. “It took 30 minutes just to get ready to take a shower. I didn’t want to shower. I just wanted to lay there.”

But he had to shower at least once a day, sometimes twice, to avoid infection.

Ryan is now 16 and in remission. He went back to school last month and is a junior at West Valley High School. West Valley City School continues to hold the annual blood drive it has named in his honor. Ryan has a 4.0 grade-point average despite spending most of his first two years of high school in the hospital.

He encourages those who can to donate blood.

“A lot of people don’t like needles. I get that, but if I can do it, you can to. I’ve been stuck every week since the end of eighth grade,” Ryan says.