NMCC blood drive is Oct. 27

by Staff Pioneer Times
15 years ago

    Calvin Brewer, a student in Northern Maine Community College’s auto collision repair program, is living proof that American Red Cross blood donors are heroes. The 44-year-old Monticello man is thankful to be alive and has blood donors to credit for his second chance.
    That is why Brewer is encouraging his fellow NMCC students and the Aroostook County community to donate blood when two campus student organizations, Phi Theta Kappa and the Student Nurses Association, host a Red Cross Blood Drive in the College gymnasium from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 27.
    Brewer lost his arm up to his bicep in a tragic accident at work in southern Aroostook on Christmas Eve 2005.  As the fourth anniversary of the life-changing incident nears, he reflects on what happened and how he survived.
    “I went to work in Houlton on Christmas Eve and awoke in Boston at Mass General on Christmas morning,” said Brewer.  
    Today, he credits the first aid training he received as a Boy Scout, the quick thinking of his co-workers at Louisiana Pacific and many Red Cross blood donors for saving his life.   
    The NMCC blood drive comes at a time when blood supplies are urgently needed throughout the state and region. In order to meet the need for blood in central and northern New England, the Red Cross must receive more than 350,000 donations a year.  A total of 1,400 pints of blood must be collected every working day in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont to meet patient needs.
    Blood components and derivatives manufactured from donated blood are sent to more than 170 hospitals.  In Maine alone, over 300 blood donations are required every day from donors to meet the needs of patients in the state’s 39 hospitals.  A cancer patient, for example, may require hundreds of units of blood products during the course of his or her treatment.
    Community members who would like to donate blood can log on to www.givelife.org or call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE to make an appointment or for more information.  Appointments are not necessary but, are encouraged.