SBC Stories connects blood donors and patients though storytelling, with new weekly articles on our blog, HemoBLOGin, featured patient stories and videos, and publications. Our patient stories inspire and move us to be of service the most vulnerable in our community, and our donor stories illustrate the many ways donors make a difference in patients’ lives every day.
HemoBLOGin — The Stanford Blood Center Blog (Read All)
“Hart to Hart”: How Dr. Brad Hart Honors His Mother Through Donation
Brad Hart is a fifth-generation medical professional and comes from a history of medical innovation. His great, great grandfather, Andrew Jackson Hart, was an OBGYN; his great grandfather, Arch Coombs Hart, was a practicing dentist, and one of the first to lecture that tooth decay was caused by bacteria; his grandfather, Frank L. Hart, was…
Audrey and Evan’s Story: Mother and Son Go for Gold Supporting Patients
Earlier this year, milestone donor Audrey Gold had a very special donation appointment. At the same time that she gave her 164th donation at Stanford Blood Center, her 16-year-old son, Evan, gave his very first. Audrey has been donating blood for over 30 years. Her first experience with donation was back in college, when her…
SBC Makes History and Enhances Platelet Safety by Going 100% PRT
By Harry Sussmann, Operational Excellence (OpEx) Director On April 28, Stanford Blood Center became the first blood center of its size in the nation to use pathogen reduction technology, or PRT, on 100% of its transfusable platelets produced. With this milestone, SBC is ensuring that the platelet units our donors generously provide are as safe…
Patient Stories (Read All)
“Hart to Hart”: How Dr. Brad Hart Honors His Mother Through Donation
Brad Hart is a fifth-generation medical professional and comes from a history of medical innovation. His great, great grandfather, Andrew Jackson Hart, was an OBGYN; his great grandfather, Arch Coombs Hart, was a practicing dentist, and one of the first to lecture that tooth decay was caused by bacteria; his grandfather, Frank L. Hart, was…
Emiliana’s Story: Micro-Preemie Born at 23 Weeks Beats All Odds
By Krista Thomas, Communications Strategist In early 2019, Kristi Trog and her husband Josh were thrilled but also surprised to find out that Kristi was pregnant with their first child. The pair counted this news as a true miracle. Though they knew that having a baby later in life would mean they needed to prepare…
Hadley’s Story: A Six-Year-Old’s Fight Against Cancer During a Global Pandemic
It’s hard to believe that for the bulk of 2019, Katy Crain knew very little about cancer. She considered herself lucky to have never had any close family members affected by it, and while she was sympathetic to cancer patients and had donated blood before, the concept seemed removed from her everyday life. All of…
Donor Stories (Read All)
“Hart to Hart”: How Dr. Brad Hart Honors His Mother Through Donation
Brad Hart is a fifth-generation medical professional and comes from a history of medical innovation. His great, great grandfather, Andrew Jackson Hart, was an OBGYN; his great grandfather, Arch Coombs Hart, was a practicing dentist, and one of the first to lecture that tooth decay was caused by bacteria; his grandfather, Frank L. Hart, was…
Audrey and Evan’s Story: Mother and Son Go for Gold Supporting Patients
Earlier this year, milestone donor Audrey Gold had a very special donation appointment. At the same time that she gave her 164th donation at Stanford Blood Center, her 16-year-old son, Evan, gave his very first. Audrey has been donating blood for over 30 years. Her first experience with donation was back in college, when her…
Ernest’s Story: “How Donating Blood Saved My Life — Twice”
By Krista Thomas, Communications Strategist Ernest Boyd has been giving blood for decades. What started as a way to save the lives of others, however, has saved his own life multiple times. Becoming a Platelet Donor Ernest first really committed to giving blood in the early 1990s. Though he had donated one or two…
Team SBC Stories (Read All)
Celebrating Women in Leadership at SBC
In honor of International Women's Day, we interviewed just a few of the incredible women in leadership who make our work possible here at SBC. See what they had to say about their experience as women in their field below. Who has empowered/inspired you to be the leader you are today? Alison Hopkins “My mom...
What It Meant to Be Team SBC in 2020
To help paint a clearer picture of how the challenges of 2020 affected teams all around the Blood Center, we asked team members to tell us, in a few sentences, what being an SBC team member in 2020 meant to them. “Last year was my 21st year working in SBC’s Processing Laboratory, which performs tests…
In Loving Memory, Susan H. Belanger, RN
SBC Volunteer Stories (Read All)
Dan and John’s Story: Building Community Through Service
In honor of National Best Friends Day this year, we interviewed two of our most dedicated SBC volunteers: Dan Rhoads and John Henry. Though their backgrounds are in some ways quite opposite (“yin and yang,” as they say), the two met and have formed a strong bond, largely through their joint commitment to blood donation…
Closer to Home: When Blood Donation Gets Personal
When Rachel Ren* was a junior, she was thrilled at the opportunity to give blood at her high school’s SBC mobile drive. Rachel had never had an experience with blood donation before — never had a family member need blood that she could remember, never needed blood herself — but she felt called to help….
Volunteer Spotlight — Jennifer Harris
It’s time for your winter Volunteer Spotlight! Stanford Blood Center (SBC) is incredibly thankful for our volunteers, who play a very important role in our health care community. It is our pleasure to introduce one of our wonderful helpers, Jennifer Harris. Why do you volunteer at SBC? I believe in the importance of volunteering…