Blood donation at the Memorial Blood Centers donor center in Plymouth takes about 15 minutes. iStock.com/Poike
Memorial Blood Centers donors and staff give the gift that keeps giving.
On Plymouth’s Harbor Lane, crucial work happens every day. For over 75 years, Memorial Blood Centers (MBC) has provided blood and blood products to hospitals and other health care sites across Minnesota and beyond. At the Plymouth donor center, that mission is carried out with compassion, dedication and plenty of cookies.
Leah Thompson knows the stakes better than most. She’s spent 17 years with MBC, including six at Plymouth, as an operations manager, phlebotomist and trainer. Before that, she worked in a St. Paul emergency room. “One day, an ambulance coming in radioed our emergency department,” Thompson says. The ambulance carried two patients from a car crash, both in critical condition. “I got that look from the doctor. I know that look,” she says. She sprinted to the lab to retrieve two units of O negative blood. “Then the lab staff said, ‘Leah, this is the last of the O neg—don’t hang it if you don’t need it.’” That experience—nearly running out of blood during a crisis—stayed with her. “It broke my heart and started a passion for donated blood,” Thompson says. “It wasn’t long after that I started working for Memorial Blood Centers.”
Donors are eligible for different types of donation based on blood type. Photo: Corey Bianchi-Rossi
Now at nearby donor centers in Maple Grove and Coon Rapids, Thompson helps others give the gift of life. “Our donors truly get to be an extension of our work family and are very dear to us,” she says. One of those longtime donors is Steve Fossen. Known to staff as “Sparky,” Fossen began donating decades ago. As of this writing, he’s donated more than 134 gallons through platelet apheresis (donation of white blood cells only). “They tell me my doubles can treat multiple people with various types of leukemia, and they let me know where mine go,” Fossen says. “Lately, mostly to children’s hospitals.”
Fossen’s interest in donating blood was inspired by a Reader’s Digest article about a Russian helicopter captain who died after unknowingly flying over Chernobyl. “He was serving his country, and I am a vet. I felt for him,” Fossen says. He joined a bone marrow registry, got advanced blood typing and started donating. His “why” is simple: “I have more blood than money.”
Winter is an especially crucial time for blood donations due to challenging road conditions, causing increased injuries. “At the same time, businesses and schools aren’t hosting large blood drives [due to holiday breaks],” Thompson says. MBC encourages anyone who can to spare an hour and give blood. At your first appointment, staff will check your hemoglobin to make sure you’re a good candidate for donation and to see if your blood qualifies for a special type of donation. The collection itself only takes about 15 minutes. “Then you’re ready to have a cookie or two and relax,” Thompson says.
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