September 2010
Bell High School and CHLA….a winning team!
Since January 2008 Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and the students of the Bell High School senior class have been a winning combination. The motivated senior classes have participated in 7 blood drives. Every blood drive has been a great success, and the blood drive on September 22, 2010 was no different….or was it?
The Recruitment Staff of the Children’s Hospital Blood Donor Center did what they do for every blood drive. They met with the client, the Leadership Class of the Student Body, to help them to organize the blood drive …when, where, how many, what PR tools to use.
The Blood Donor Center Staff did what they do for every blood drive at Bell….be sure that everyone is assigned to be at Bell High, pick up plenty of snacks and drinks for the potential donors and make sure there were sufficient supplies….or so they thought.
The Blood Donor Center Staff spent the usual night before a big blood drive tossing and turning, wondering, “did we load enough water, did we buy enough bread for the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, did we bring enough cookies, do we have enough people”? They have to move the whole operation into the selected gym at Bell High School. Everything that needs to be put into the truck has been put on a dolly the night before and is waiting to be wheeled out to the truck the morning of the blood drive. Since there are temperature sensitive items that must be loaded into the truck the morning of the drive, the staff arrives at 5:00am to take care of those special items. The last thing they get are the unique ice pillow packs that are used to cool the units of blood during transportation back to the hospital.
After getting all the supplies loaded, the 4 staff members start on their trek down the 5 freeway to the 710. Both vehicles, the Box Truck and the Maxmobile Mobile Coach were on the road to Bell, located in the southeastern section of Los Angeles County. Bell High School is a multi-track Year Round comprehensive high school (grades 9-12) serving 5,375 (2006–2007) students from the communities of Bell, Cudahy, and Maywood. One of six high schools in Local District 6, and one of forty-nine comprehensive high schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District, Bell High School opened its doors in 1925 for 800 students….they have grown a little over the years.
The other staff members come from their homes as far away as San Dimas to arrive by 6am to help with the set up so that things can start on time by 7:30am. Chaise type lounge chairs, blood pressure machines, tables and 200 chairs are set up to accommodate all the stations needed for a blood drive,.…..registration, work area for donors to fill in their cards, 3 interview sections, 5 physical stations, the donation area and because the blood drive is at Bell High School, a waiting area, and another waiting area, and yet another waiting area, and one more waiting area; and the Maxmobile, with 5 beds on board was parked right outside if needed
The students at Bell are THE BEST. They come at their appointed time, they take instruction well, they are patient, and orderly, and even though a few are nervous, they don’t leave, they don’t make a spectacle, they are respectful and pleased to share their good health with another person who is in need.
The courier company was called to transport the specially packed coolers with the precious cargo back to the hospital. The courier makes several trips – each with 30 or so units of blood to be delivered to the Children’s Hospital Component Processing section of the laboratory. The donated pints of blood are then processed into units of fresh frozen plasma and red blood cells by the 4 staff members who are there to work on that part of the operation. There are also blood samples from each donor for the required transmissible disease tests to be performed and to determine blood type.
The staff got to know much about the students at Bell High School. Many of the students who participated in the blood drive are working on college applications. As one would expect there are some seniors who must decide what they want to do with their lives and some who know they want to be teachers, chefs, astronomers, and every other profession. Bell graduates include professional athletes and musicians ranging from opera, to jazz to rap.
Hour after hour the blood drive went on. The lines were checked to see which area had the most people waiting and the staff moved around to accommodate moving the group. The recruitment staff went to get food for the Leadership Class volunteers who were keeping order and for the staff. One by one the staff went to eat so they could keep working, because the 200 chairs were always full. Blood was collected in all 12 chairs in the gym and 5 chairs on the Maxmobile. At 11am the staff asked for more bags to collect more donors….they arrived in time and a quick accounting was done. There were 115 bags left and the 200 chairs were still full.
The staff decided to figure a point to dismiss students since there was not a sufficient supply to collect their blood or sufficient time to allow for transport and processing. School is important and the staff felt the students should return to their classes. The Leadership Class student organizers were very sad that all the students who wanted to participate, could not and asked if the Blood Donor Center would come back to finish another day. The Recruitment team asked the supervisor, called back to the hospital to check on the work schedule and the calendar to be sure of when a day was available. It was decided that Children’s Hospital would be back on September 29th.
The blood drive continued….blood was collected until there were no more bags. The staff turned around and asked “What happened to all the donors?” They had steadily been concentrating on their donors and didn’t know about the extra bags and the extra blood drive the following week. The last of the blood had to be packaged for transport as the team started to tear down the temporary blood donation site and clean up the gym….the motto: to leave everything as clean or cleaner than it was found.
While all that was going on….someone asked, “How many were collected?” The Blood Donor Center staff assigned someone to count the entries on the tally sheet. 189 was counted out in French, the native language of the staff member doing the counting…. “I was really hoping for 200,” she said disappointedly. The other team members showed her 2 more containers with units of blood waiting to be packaged for transport, and about 4 units still being collected. She was ecstatic…showing a huge smile that she is still wearing! The final count for Bell High School on 9-22-10 is 245 units of blood. The final count for Bell High School THE SEQUEL on 9-29-10 is 100. The final tally for Bell High School 2010 is an unprecedented 345…so far.
The team will be even better prepared for the Bell High School Eagles the next time there is a blood drive in December.
We, in Southern California, are so fortunate that we have the great example of the Bell High School Eagles. They have helped the patients at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles who hail from every part of Los Angeles County, and from Orange and Ventura counties and even the rest of the world. Last year at Children’s Hospital the total number of transfusions was over 20, 000 and the patients came from all over the United States and as far away as Europe and Asia.
Bell High School exists to “educate all students to the highest degree of their abilities socially, academically, and technologically so that they become contributing members of society”. By partnering with Children’s Hospital, these very special kids have done way more than that. They are contributing members of society…They have cared about another human being, they have helped someone be better, they have shared their good health, they have saved a life….and they have helped all the medical professionals at Children’s Hospital to achieve their mission to “create hope and build healthier futures”. It is a win-win!!!
If you have interest in having a blood drive in your community, please contact Raul Gonzalez, ragonzalez@chla.usc.edu 323.361.2380 or Jackie Andrade, jandrade@chla.usc.edu 323.361.6377 for additional information.