43
Man makes donation of blood his mission
St. Elizabeth Health Center in Youngstown established a blood platelet donation program in 2006.
CHAMPION — A girl’s death from a blood disorder, just a week before she was to be a special guest at an American Red Cross dinner for blood platelet donors, reaffirmed for James H. Eakin how important platelets are.
Eakin, of Champion, began as a whole blood donor in the early 1980s, but converted to donating blood platelets in 1993. Platelets are cells that help stop bleeding, and are used for patients undergoing aggressive treatment for cancers such as leukemia, aplastic anemia and other blood disorders.
“I think her death just made me realize even more how important platelets are, and heightened my desire to keep donating,” he said.
Eakin started donating whole blood while he was working at Delphi Packard in Warren when the American Red Cross bloodmobile stopped at the North River Road plant. He has donated 13 gallons of blood, which incorporates his platelet donations, over the years.
He became a VIP Donor, a Red Cross designation for making four whole blood donations a year, and was on the international bone marrow donor list for many years.
“I never got called to make a bone marrow donation. It was my goal, but I never got called,” Eakin said.
He retired from Delphi Packard on Jan. 1, 2007, after 371‚Ñ2 years there, and now works part-time for Preston Motors in Warren as a driver in the service department.
When he made the switch from donating whole blood to donating platelets, he had to drive to Cleveland, where the closest Red Cross platelet extracting equipment was located. Between travel and donating time, it’s a six-hour process. He also occasionally donated platelets at Cleveland University Hospitals on a special-needs basis.
“I thought donating platelets was something unique, and I wanted to be involved and to contribute. God gave me the ability to do this, and Packard allowed me to leave a little early to drive to Cleveland. What I did in Cleveland was very minimal compared to what people went through who needed the platelets,” he said.
He made the trip to Cleveland for many years, but then in 2006 he learned that St. Elizabeth Health Center in Youngstown had established a platelet apheresis donation program.
Apheresis is the process of removing platelets and returning the remaining blood components, such as red blood cells and plasma, to the donor. The process takes 45 to 90 minutes. Platelet donors are able to donate every two weeks, compared to every 56 days for whole blood.
Eakin said he was the sixth person to donate platelets at St. Elizabeth, and believes he was the first person off the street to donate. Most of the people who donate platelets at St. Elizabeth are staff members, hospital officials said.
“Going to St. Elizabeth saves me a lot of time and hassle. It made it very easy. I can donate 24 times a year, although I haven’t quite made that goal. The program is wonderful, and people at St. Elizabeth make it easy to go,” he said.
Eakin said he made donating whole blood and platelets a part of his life when someone close to him needed transfusions.
“Seeing the transformation in that person from being totally lethargic to being a fun, enjoyable person again was amazing,” he said.
Eakin, 62, is a 1964 graduate of Liberty High School and served in the Air Force from 1964 to 1968 on active duty and from 1975-77 in the Air Force Reserve. His wife, Diane, works at Paige & Burns Insurance in Warren. They have a son, James N., who recently received his doctorate in electrical engineering from Brown University in Providence, R.I.
Eakin, a member of North-Mar Church of the Christian & Missionary Alliance in Warren, combines his hobby of bicycling with volunteering as a member of the bike patrol on Western Reserve Greenway Trail.
He urged people to become blood donors.
“There are so few blood donors and so many people in need, and we think it [the supply of blood] will always be there,” he said.
He praised the people from the Red Cross and St. Elizabeth who draw the blood. “They make you feel special,” he said.
“Yes, it’s a little prick in your arm, but it’s nothing compared to what the people who need it are going through. It really does save lives,” Eakin said.
alcorn@vindy.com