Better Blood

I was in a face-off with the clock. Narrowing my eyes, I dared it to move yet another minute ahead. It did. Jumping up, I approached the people at the table for the third time, asking in my most polite passive-aggressive voice if they knew how much longer this would take. They shrugged and gave me a lollipop to shut me up. There was nothing to be done, so I trudged back to my seat, resuming my battle with the clock, a war I had already waged for two and a half hours. Next to me, a girl sighed in defeat, shaking her head as she stood up and walked away. Yet another victim of the Harvard Blood Drive, I thought to myself, as I tapped my fingers and stared at the seconds-hand.

The students who organize the blood drive provide a great service. Giving blood is a great way to help others, and it doesn’t take much time—or, at least, it shouldn’t. The way the drive is currently organized at Harvard, however, places an unreasonable burden on potential donors by requiring two to three hours of time, time that most simply don’t have.

As the high number of students willing to wait for hours at the last drive indicates, this campus is committed to giving blood. But the current process, which is crowded and lengthy, prevents an even higher turnout. This problem could be addressed by implementing major structural changes before the next blood drive, planned for next week.

We can start reducing the wait time by expanding the donation sites. Instead of alternating between Loker Commons and Adams House, the drive should utilize both spaces simultaneously. People signing up for appointments could be designated a location in advance to ensure a reasonably equitable distribution between the two. A two-site operation would mean more available beds, and student coordinators should ask for a corresponding increase in the number of nurses. All these changes would significantly speed up the process.

Another time-saving strategy would be pre-testing for iron levels. With the current system, students wait for hours, only to be turned away because their iron is too low. Frustrated and discouraged, many don’t come back. A simple finger prick before the wait would correct this problem and improve turnout.

Both of these changes are entirely feasible, but students and faculty must tell their student representatives to take action. According to Pamela Leach, the American Red Cross supervisor of the Harvard effort, the Red Cross would love to expand the University’s blood drive, but it is up to students to ask. Patricia M. Raciti ’06, co-President of the drive, says that although her organization does not control the number of beds and nurses, she wishes students would provide feedback so that they could relay information to the Red Cross. The resources, then, are available—it is up to us to act.

After all that time invested, I was turned away for having low iron levels. I am going to try again when the next blood drive rolls around in just a few days. But I hope not to repeat the experience. Giving blood is a vital service that many of us can offer, and the drive needs to be organized so that more of us will.



Rosa M. Norton ’08, a Crimson editorial comper, is a history and literature concentrator in Lowell House.