Blood Donation: The Gift of Life.

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Author: Reyes, Damaso

Marcia Blake of Harlem never thought she or anyone she knew would need blood. But when her daughter Arthenia was born prematurely in 1994, she needed a blood transfusion to save her life.

A few years later, Blake took her then-6-year-old Son, Ansel to the hospital with a fever. She didn't think anything was seriously wrong, but tests showed that this red blood cell count was low and he was in desperate need of a transfusion. Although Ansel had been diagnosed with sickle cell anemia when he was nine months old, he had never had any problems as a result of it. During his 1997 hospital stay, Blake was informed that in the future, her son would need many more transfusions.

"The blood transfusion saved his life," Blake says. While her son's sickle cell disease is under control -- thanks to an experimental medication -- over the past eight years, Ansel has received more than 200 transfusions.

"I was shocked to learn that people in the African American community don't donate," says Blake, whose son, now 14, wants to become a surgeon. Both Ansel and his 10-year-old sister are normal, healthy children today because they were able to get blood when they most needed it.

Each year more than 4 million people in this country require blood; in fact, one in five people who goes to the hospital needs blood. There are no national statistics on how many of these people are African American, but what we do know is that Blacks suffer in higher rates than the general population from sickle cell anemia, some cancers and other ailments that often require transfusions. Given this fact, African Americans find themselves in need of blood in greater rates than the rest of the general population.

Despite the need, however, less than 1 percent of Blacks donate blood, according to the American Red Cross. The overall donation rate is just 5 percent. This disparity means that chronically transfused African American patients have a more difficult time finding blood their bodies will not reject; sometimes it means not getting a transfusion at all.

An additional problem is posed by the fact that some African Americans decline to identify their ethnic background on their donation forms. This self-identification is important because it allows doctors to identify blood more likely to contain specific traits.

While it may not occur to most of us that we might need blood one day, accidents, surgeries, organ transplants and sudden illnesses can all require transfusions, and there is simply no substitute for blood.

A number of chronic diseases require repeated blood transfusions. Sickle cell anemia, an inherited disease that primarily affects African Americans and strikes approximately 1 in 400 Blacks, is a particular concern.

Sickle cell anemia is a genetic disease that causes red blood cells, the component of blood that carries oxygen to the body, to change shape or sickle. When this happens red blood cells can clog vital blood vessels, causing pain, organ failure and even death. The primary treatment is an immediate transfusion of blood, which in many cases can mean the difference between life and death. "Sickle cell disease can be devastating," Richard Davey, M.D., a hematologist and chief medical officer of the New York Blood Center, says. People with the disease "need a lot of transfusions of normal blood, sometimes in the hundreds and hundreds of pints during their lifetime."

For anyone who receives chronic transfusions, but especially sickle cell patients like Blake's son, there is a risk of developing antibodies to blood. Though most of us are familiar with the large blood groups, A, B and O, there are more than 200 sub-types that are centered around genetic traits carried by different racial groups. Over the course of a lifetime a sickle cell patient can develop antibodies to these different sub-types, requiring ever more precise matches from donors who share their genetic makeup. For sickle cell patients, that means blood from other African Americans.

It was Charles Drew, an African American physician, who revolutionized medicine in 1940 when he pioneered the system we now use for separating and preserving blood. Now, most people between ages 17 and 75 can donate blood up to six times a year. Just one pint can help save the lives of as many as five different people.

"We are always singing and praising God about how the blood of Jesus saves, well, your blood can save, too," says Rev. Calvin O. Butts III of Harlem's historic Abyssinian Baptist Church, which held a blood drive earlier this year. "We ought to demonstrate that this community, as much as any other community, is willing to do all that it can to save human life."

For more information about donating blood, call 888-USBLOOD or visit www.americasblood.org.

PHOTO (COLOR): Both of Marcia Blake's children, Arthenia and Ansel, needed blood transfusions.

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By Damaso Reyes

Damaso Reyes is a New York-based freelance writer and photographer.