Date Visited : November 3, 2008 State Number: 20

Contact Information: American Red Cross 209 Farmington Avenue Farmington, Connecticut 06032 Carol Beattie Phone: 860-678-2749   Web Site: www.bloodct.org Email: beattiec@usa.redcross.org

Man draws attention to need for platelets during Red Cross in Farmington visit

By: Brian Woodman Jr., Staff Writer

Al Whitney, a retired factory worker from Ohio, visited the Connecticut headquarters of the American Red Cross in Farmington on Nov. 3 to help others while achieving a personal milestone. He is currently on a platelet-donating tour of the United States that began last August and will take two years, he said.
As he sat in a chair in the facility, a machine called a Trima was drawing between eight and 10 liters of blood from his body and returning it. The process takes about 90 minutes, according to Whitney. As the blood was being put through a centrifuge that spun it at a high speed, components called platelets were being drawn for use by the Red Cross. Whitney, who is 71, said he plans to donate platelets in every state during his journey. Connecticut is his twentieth state.
"It's a terrific way to bring up the need for platelets and affirm that it's easy to give blood," said Paul Sullivan, who is the CEO of the Connecticut Red Cross. "If you have to travel thousands of miles, it's worth it."
Randy Henry, the aphaeresis manager for the facility, said that all but 500 milliliters of the blood and its components is typically returned during the procedure. The platelets, which help with clotting, are used to help chemotherapy patients, burn victims and others.
"It's the body's first line of defense when we are bleeding," said Henry. He said about 20 people donate platelets at the facility every day - the daily allowable maximum is 24 donors.
"It's still not enough," he said. "It's impossible to say exactly how much we need. We are always experiencing it."
Whitney, who volunteered at a local blood bank in Avon Lake, Ohio, still encourages as many people as he can to donate blood or platelets. Henry described him as an active recruiter for blood drives.
"I've been a volunteer for years," Whitney said. "I was donating like this about two years ago, and I decided I can do more than this."
He has visited Ohio, California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Missouri, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, Tennessee, Texas, Idaho, Wisconsin, Nevada and Maryland. During his trip, he is raising awareness about the need by cancer patients for platelets while making the T-shirts donated to him into quilts that will be given to cancer centers. He has joked in previous statements that they call him Count Dracula at home, but the bigger purpose he serves blunts the comments.
"People ask what keeps me going, and I tell them, 'Just walk through a cancer ward, then come back and ask me again,'" he stated. "I have not had cancer in my own family, but so many people need help, the least I can do is give my share and spread the word."