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Aug. 16, 2001
CHARLOTTESVILLE – More than 55,000 different people gave blood with Virginia Blood Services (VBS) last year, and many of them wonder what kind of person received their gift.
Nearly 150 people received organ transplants at the University of Virginia Medical Center (UVMC) last year, and many of them wonder what kind of people gave the lifesaving blood they received.
Some of these people will have a chance to find out at 1:30 p.m. on Friday, August 17, when a young athlete who received a heart transplant at UVMC in the year 2000 meets some of the 174 blood donors whose blood he received. The meeting will take place in the Dining Conference Room off the Main Lobby.
Mark Lindsey, who entered UVA in 1995 on a football scholarship, will meet some of the people whose blood helped save his life after heart problems that began with a case of flu caused great damage to his left ventricle and led to a heart transplant.
Dr. Louis Rossiter, Secretary of Health and Human Resources for the Commonwealth of Virginia, will be a featured speaker at the event.
Twenty-three of the 174 blood donors who gave blood that went to Mark were from the Charlottesville area, including Waynesboro, Barboursville, Somerset, Reva, Keswick, Bumpass and Elkton. Of the total 174 donors: 52% were male, 48% female 16% are members of a minority 6% were giving blood for the first time when they gave blood Mark received 6 have given blood over 100 times
It is quite common for organ and bone marrow donors or their families to meet their recipients, but the tradition of maintaining donor confidentiality is so strong in blood banking that only one blood center other than Virginia Blood Services has actually introduced donors to patients. (VBS held its first event in Richmond in June at Bon Secours St. Mary’s Hospital, where a young woman who suffered a brain hemorrhage met 15 of her 42 donors.)
The purpose of the meeting is to personalize the act of giving blood and to challenge and inspire people to give blood. Growth in blood demand continues to outpace growth in blood supply, even though giving blood is probably the most common form of volunteering in the U.S.
“Blood shortages in our area are becoming more frequent,” said Virginia Blood Services President Robert Carden. “We need to help people who have stopped giving or have never given blood to see what an important role their gift of blood can play. The example of the unselfish people we will celebrate at this event will speak for itself.
“And we also want to salute the team of medical professionals who saved Mark’s life as well as Mark and his family, who are remarkable and courageous people.”
Virginia Blood Services is the nonprofit organization that supplies all the blood for the hospitals in Richmond, Charlottesville, Hopewell, South Hill, Farmville, Lexington and the Staunton/Waynesboro area.