Wednesday, November 21st, 2018, Point Pleasant Boro High School held a blood drive in the auxiliary gym that was open for any senior students or staff willing to give blood. The blood drive consisted of about ten to fifteen stations, some for actually drawing blood and others for filling out the information needed to get blood taken. The workers of the blood drive take one pint of blood from each participant, which takes about ten minutes. When we asked where the blood is being donated to, one of the nurses told us that donations go to local hospitals in New Jersey for regular medical, use such as surgeries and blood transfusions.

One senior, Eric Wehmeyer, was donating blood through a process called an RCO. Eric was the only one there at the time donating blood via this process. RCO stands for Red Cells Only, in this process blood is taken and entered into a centrifuge. The centrifuge spins at intense speeds and separates the plasma in the blood from the red blood cells. This gives a more pure form of blood, rather than normal blood that is diluted with plasma, and doubles the number of red blood cells taken. 

RCO donations not only provide double the number of red blood cells compared to a regular donation, but they also have other benefits. This process uses a smaller needle, so if fear of needles prevents your donation,  donating RCOs may be a viable alternative. The total volume of blood that taken is less than that of a normal donation because only red blood cells are needed, rather than blood cells and plasma. Although there is less blood taken overall, these donations are important. Volunteers can donate RCOs once every four to five months.

Senior Parker Roncin donated as well. When asked why he wanted to donate he said, “I think donating blood is a great opportunity to save a life and everyone should do it.”