Casey Rockey was born with supravalvular aortic stenosis, a rare heart condition that causes a narrowing of his aortic valve at the opening. He required beta blockers for a year to manage his stenosis and tachycardia and, at age three and a half, it was time for open-heart surgery.
By Julie Ruel, Social Media Manager, Stanford Blood Center
Stacey Tinianov began coordinating our Cisco blood drives in 2009 and, to date, has brought in almost 3,000 units of blood. Less than a year after taking on her responsibilities as a blood drive coordinator, she joined our Donor Cup competition and won the award for highest number of units collected. She and her husband both donate as often as they can and she loves, loves, loves to tweet about her upcoming blood drives, and her many other activities for that matter, as @coffeemommy.
By Tim Gilmore, Blood Drive Account Manager, Stanford Blood Center
Last year, my cousin's husband, Darren, became extremely ill. He was rushed to a hospital in Central California but after days of declining health, doctors decided that he needed to be taken by medevac to Stanford Hospital. Upon his arrival, he was met by world-class physicians who rushed to diagnose his symptoms. After being stabilized at Stanford, his health started to improve and we learned that he had leukemia. He started a treatment plan immediately and began receiving numerous blood products.
By Mark Z. Jacobson, PhD, Director of the Atmosphere/Energy Program and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University
Global warming, air pollution, and energy insecurity are three of the most significant problems facing the world today. My upcoming talk at Stanford Blood Center's Café Scientifique on 3/29/12 discusses a plan to solve the problems by powering 100% of the world's energy for all purposes, including electricity, transportation, industry, and heating/cooling, with wind, water, and sunlight (WWS) within 20-40 years.
By Billie Rubin, Hemoglobin's Catabolic Cousin, reporting from the labs of Stanford Blood Center
Today is the first day of spring! Get ready to be wowed by flowers blooming, love blossoming, and newborn farm animals running around. Youth and spring make blood bankers think of reticulocytes, red blood cells that haven't fully matured (the teenagers of the red cell world).
By Billie Rubin, Hemoglobin's Catabolic Cousin, reporting from the labs of Stanford Blood Center
Phlebotomy was once a hair-raising occupation. The PBS series Red Gold: The Epic Story of Blood tells of a specialized medical practitioner that arose in the Middle Ages: the barber-surgeon. Not only could you get your hair cut at the barber shop, but the barbers performed some minor surgical procedures such as blood letting as well. They created their own guild, competed with doctors, and advertised their services with their unique barber's pole still in use today.
By Tim Gilmore, Blood Drive Account Manager, Stanford Blood Center
When you think of Paul Newman, you probably think of the Hollywood legend. But when you say "Paul Newman" at Stanford Blood Center, people think of the Paul B. Newman Neighborhood Blood Drive. Paul is an extremely passionate and dedicated Blood Drive Coordinator. Rain or shine, Paul is out greeting donors and making everyone feel welcome.
Friends Roy Tuason and Erik Klein gave their 100th donations together on Tuesday, 3/6 at our Mountain View center. Their wives, friends and co-workers joined them on this special day with many of them donating as well.
Here, Roy shares a little about himself and his buddy, Erik, and how they got started donating blood.
By Tim Gilmore, Blood Drive Account Manager, Stanford Blood Center
During each blood donation, six small tubes of blood are collected (to be used later for testing), along with the bag of blood used for transfusion. When the blood donors finish their good deed, they rest in the canteen with cookies and juice. But their precious gift of blood is already busy, working toward saving lives! Here, we take you on a tour through our lab.
By Billie Rubin, Hemoglobin's Catabolic Cousin, reporting from the labs of Stanford Blood Center
Usually living cells have a nucleus where the chromosomes and DNA live, and a number of other organelles that are involved in making energy, proteins, repairs to itself, etc. But our little red blood cell (RBC) friends selflessly throw all of that away when they grow up to have more room for lots of hemoglobin molecules that bind to oxygen, then take all that oxygen to other tissues of the body. This selfless act leaves our RBCs with a diminished life span (just 120 days) because they can't repair themselves.