Downers Grove resident Cheryl Abate has donated platelets on more than 175 occasions at the blood center, perhaps unknowingly boosting the platelet count of a premature baby in Adventist Hinsdale Hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit or another patient in need at one of three other local hospitals. The 58-year-old woman began donating whole blood more than 30 years ago and switched to platelet donation 10 years later when she learned of the high demand for it.

“I can donate platelets more often than whole blood – every three weeks as opposed to eight – but it does take a little longer, about 45 minutes,” Abate says. “Knowing I’ve helped someone means so much to me. And it doesn’t cost anything except my time.”

The blood center was established in the 1970s by retired pathologist Dr. Roland Lonser. The idea of having an “onsite” blood center would ensure that blood products were immediately available to meet patients’ transfusion needs. Because Adventist Hinsdale Hospital has an active open heart surgery program, blood products are constantly in demand; this gives Adventist Midwest Health an advantage over an outside blood service that cannot always meet emergency needs.

Adventist Lab Partners Blood Center generally receives enough donations to supply about 20 percent of its transfusion need; a local non-profit blood center provides the remainder. Donations typically decline at various times throughout the year but the need remains steady, says donor recruiter Janice Rosacrans.

“Blood cannot be manufactured,” Rosacrans says. “If we have a shortage, I cannot call up a company and ask them to ship two pints of manufactured blood.”

Without blood donors, people with urgent needs for transfusions could die: a mother experiencing a problematic birth requiring blood while undergoing a routine Cesarean section, a grandfather having open heart surgery or a young driver in an automobile accident. One of the best reasons to donate to the blood center at Adventist Hinsdale Hospital is that the donated blood benefits people in the community.

“You could end up helping a friend or a neighbor,” Rosacrans says.

In 2010, Rosacrans hopes the number of monthly blood donors rises to a consistent 150 donors. Currently, that number fluctuates. For example, 172 people donated blood in June, but barely 100 donated in December.

Rosacrans hopes the January blood drive will not only attract new donors but also inspire renewed interest from people who once donated – as it did for Naperville resident Charles Sexton. In the last 15 years, the 68-year-old has donated 78 pints of whole blood to the blood center. He initially came to the center hoping to be a platelet match for a cousin suffering from cancer.

“It turned out that I wasn’t,” Sexton says, “and they recruited me for whole blood.”

After that donation, Sexton again felt the immense satisfaction he experienced the first time he donated blood – as a 19-year-old student at a college blood drive – and made a commitment to return. “It was something I could do easily and I’ve been doing it ever since,” Sexton says.

Adventist Lab Partners Blood Center is located in Adventist Hinsdale Hospital, 121 N. Elm Street, level B2. For more information, call (630) 856-7837.