Welcome to iHeartRadio Communities, a public affairs special focusing on the biggest issues in facting you this week.
Here's Many Muonio's.
Hellowen, thank you for tuning into this week's program. As you heard, I am Manny Muno's and this is iHeartRadio's Communities. An interesting topic that is near and dear to my heart this week. Because I've been a blood donor for about thirty nine years and January happens to be National blood donor month. We're lucky to be joined now by Rodney Wilson with the American Red Cross. Rodney, I appreciate the time.
Yeah, thank you so much.
So let's start off with that this is blood donor month, January, but it also happens to be a difficult time of the year for blood supplies.
Why is that?
Yeah, And actually that's why January is National blood donor Month. January is one of our most challenging months to ensure a strong blood supply for a few different reasons. We're coming off of the December holidays where maybe people are still coming back into town. They've they've had you know,
busy schedules. So the two weeks of the December holidays are some of the lowest blood donation periods of the year where people are just very busy, and so you come into January with a lower blood supply and busy individuals, and and then we also have severe winter weather that can disrupt our our blood drives, and we've seen that
already this month. It's just just since the beginning of January, we've had severe snow and ice that's canceled more than two hundred blood drives, so that that really impacts our ability to ensure a stable supply. And then lastly, the other big factor that we see in January is cold and flu seasons. People who might might be healthy otherwise and willing to donate are sick and not able to
do so. And all of those factors together just make it a really tough month, which is why in nineteen seventy President Nixon actually was the first president to declare January as National Blood Donor Month, to focus on thinking people who give and highlighting this important need.
No, that's fascinating.
I mentioned I've been a donor for nearly four decades. I don't unfortunately donate as regularly as I like, but I still donate to this day. I was surprised to read that only about three percent of eligible people donate blood on a yearly basis.
Yeah, I mean that's really a shocking figure. Three percent. I mean that's like three out of one hundred people have ever donated blood. It's such a small number, and yet blood donors are making modern medicine possible. I mean, if you think about anybody that you know who's had to go to the hospital for something, whether it was an accident or it was a scheduled surgery like a hip replacement or open heart surgery, all of those things
can require blood to make them possible. So if we didn't have blood donors, we couldn't have cancer treatment, and we couldn't have many of these surgeries that our loved ones are having. And only three percent of the population is donating, so it's so important more people do it.
Well, let's talk about the why, and maybe even in our conversation today, bust some of the myths surrounding blood donation. Let's start off with who is eligible to donate blood. What are some of the basic requirements.
Yeah, the basic requirements are you have to be at least sixteen years old or seventeen in many states, or in some states you can be sixteen with as signed printal consent form, a minimum of one hundred and ten pounds, and generally feeling well. That means you don't have a temperature, you're not exhibiting any type of cold or flu symptom. So that's the basic requirements. Then there's a number of
other eligibility criteria that might make you an eligible. International travel to certain parts of the world can make you ineligible just for brief periods of time, for about three months. Certain types of medication might make you ineligible for a brief period of time. Many of the rules that the
FDA has in place to determine eligibility are temporary. So if you're taking a certain kind of medication, you may be asked to wait three months from the last time you took that medication, or if you traveled to certain parts of the world, you might be asked to wait three months after your return to donate. Things like that, right.
And when you go donate, you fill out a questionnaire, usually on an iPad or something like that with one of the staff members. It takes I don't know, five six, seven, eight minutes. I know piercings. Tattoos, at least of their recent also may preclude someone from donating.
You know, tattoos used to be a deferral, but they aren't anymore. As long as they're applied in a licensed tattoo facility, there is no deferral for tattoos. And that's a pretty big one, you know. For many years there was a deferral, but the FDA updated those guidelines, and as long as the tattoo facility is licensed by the FDA and follows FDA rules, there's no reason why you can't get a tattoo and then immediately donate blood as well, and then the process.
There are different types of blood donations, right, I think most of us are probably familiar with donating whole blood. You just you know, get the needle in your arm and you fill up the little pouch there. But you can also donate platelets or plasma. Each of them have their benefits in the medical establishment.
Yeah, lots of different ways you can donate. And if you don't know you know what's right for you, that's okay. You can talk with Red Cross staff and based on your blood type, they can figure out the right donation for you. But you know, whole blood donation is, you know, just giving a plint of blood and then we take it and we separate it into its different components. That can include red blood cells, platelets, and plasma. But you
can also donate just a specific opponents. So if you want to donate just platelets, that's helpful for burn victims and cancer patients or Yeah, cancer patients use about a fourth of all of the platelets that are donated, so platelets are really really important, and some individuals have a higher platelet count, so that's why it might be helpful. Let's say you have a high platelet count, you would
be a good candidate to donate just platelets. But if I have a lower platelet count, maybe I'm not a great candidate for it. So we can suggest for you what might be the best donation based on on your blood type and all of those types of details.
Speaking with Rodney Wilson of the American or Red Cross about the fact that January is National blood donor months, how long does it take? So many of us live busy lives and part of the reason why sometimes I don't donate as often as I would like to. But donating whole blood, platelets, plasma a different amount of time from one's day.
Yeah, and you know, a whole blood donation takes only about an hour. It's so quick and easy. And you might think, oh, my goodness, an hour with a needle in my arm. That's not you know, that's not how health the process works. Really, when you donate whole blood, the needle is only in your arm for maybe five minutes. It's really quick. Your whole process is an hour from the time that you sign in, you read through some materials, answer some eligibility questions, and then you're on the donor bed.
And you know that's where everybody gets afraid. I know, you know a lot of people are afraid of needles. The idea just freaks them out. I can tell you I'm a blood donor myself. You're a blood donor, you know it is it's not anything like what you might think. People are afraid it's going to hurt. It's going to be painful that whole time. And I can tell you, as a blood donor myself, it's not. You feel You feel a quick pinch when the needle enters your arm,
and then you don't feel it anymore. And as you donate blood, you don't even notice that the needle is in your arm. It's so easy and there's really no reason to be afraid.
What about different blood types? Are you always in need of one type more than another? Are all blood types able to donate?
Yeah, well, we do need all types. Really to have a strong blood supply, we want to have every type on hand. There's a few key types that are most helpful for us. Type OH whether it's O negative or O positive, is really used the most type. O negative is the universal donor. That means it can go to anybody of any type. So that's so important in emergency situations. Think about a car accident and a patient being rushed to the hospital and there they're bleeding profusely. Doctors don't
have time to type their blood. They can reach for OH negative blood right away and start transfusing without knowing that patient's blood type and save their life. Once you know that individual has been stabilized, then they can type the patient and maybe they find out, oh, this person is BE positive, then they're going to switch them over to receiving BE positive blood. But that OH negative is so essential in those first, you know, critical moments of
someone being bleeding after an accident. It literally saves lives in an emergency situation. So OH negative is really the most in demand type. OH positive is the second and most transfused type. It can go to about eighty percent of patients.
How does somebody find out their blood type if they don't know what it might be? Will would they find that out during the donation process?
Yeah? Absolutely. And you know, one misnomer is that you have to know your blood type in order to donate, and you don't. I didn't know my blood type before I donated the first time. But you do find out your blood type after you donate. You know, you'll get typed and then you'll get that information. So yeah, and really, no matter what your type is, there's a use for it, whether it's an o in using it in emergency situations
or you know, for for lots of other reasons. There are patients individuals who are A B that's extremely rare blood type. Only two or three percent of the population have type A B blood, But we still need people with AD blood to donate, So you know, there's a need for everyone regardless of your blood type.
You have a great program for people that might still be hesitant having to do with the NFL. I want to talk about that in just a second. The concerns about safety, not only about donations but about the blood supply used to make a lot of headlines I'm talking decades ago.
What is it like exactly what kind of.
Process ensures the safety and quality not only of the blood supply but of the donation process.
For sure. You know, blood donation is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, and they set all of the criteria and the rules around how to collect blood and how to store blood. And you know, the FDA and the Red Cross have worked together to ensure the strongest and safest blood supply possible. And you know, the FDA agrees that today the blood supply is as safe as
it has ever been. The process is safe for the donor, and there should be no concerns by a recipient for receiving blood based on all of the rules and regulations in place to ensure the safety for patients as well.
Let's talk about that.
Is there something for somebody who's not familiar with the process that they should do before they go to a donation center to donate. Is there something they should prepare, something you know, the foods they should or shouldn't eat, anything like that.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. If you're donating, especially if you're donating for the first time, we want you to do a number of things before you come to donate. Tell everybody that you should get a good night's sleep the night before, and hydrate a lot, starting at least a day before. You'll want to drink a lot of water. Avoid caffeine if you can avoid, so that means you coffee drinkers, Maybe avoid coffee, but hydrate with lots of water.
And then always eat a meal before you donate. You don't want to donate on an empty stomach, so even if your donation is scheduled for the morning, make sure you have breakfast and all of those things. Just generally make sure that your donation goes smoothly. Certainly, you know
occasionally somebody might feel lightheaded from the donation process. But by doing all of these things, like hydrating and eating a meal and getting a good night sleep, you can ensure that you feel good and healthy and throughout that process.
Are there any common side effects after donating blood and how can those types of things be managed?
You know, it's possible that some people might just feel a little lightheaded. But you know, part of the process too includes a snack areas, so that's a red kirk. After you donate, we ask you to sit for about fifteen minutes. You can have some juice and some snacks provided at the blood drive, cookies and crackers and different types of goodies, and those not only are nice thank you gift for you for the blood donation, but they
also helped put back the nutrients in you. Since we just took something out of you, this helps give your body some nutrients back into it to give you the energy and perky back.
Up a few more minutes here with not Rodney Wilson with the American Red Cross, Rodney. There's so many different places where people can make blood donation. Some places you do it out of the goodness of your heart because it just makes you feel good. Other places, I was surprised to learn some places even still pay people for their blood and things like that. What are the differences in different places to go and walk? I am? I have I always been most comfortable donating with the Red Cross?
Well, yeah, there are multiple organizations that facilitate the blood donation. The Red Cross is the largest blood donation organization in the United States, and we provide about forty percent of the nation's blood supply to hospitals and the rest is provided by small, smaller community blood centers. But you know, I think what's important is that people donate, regardless of who they donate with. You can choose to donate with the Red Cross or with a local community blood bank.
What's important is that more people give. And I think if people understand why it's important, they're they're more likely to give. It's something when I have conversations with people about donating, I can see the fear in their eyes of you know, thinking that it's going to be painful or unpleasant process, and I can tell you that you know, it is painful and it helps people. The reality is the majority of us know someone who's received blood, whether
we realize it or not. So if you think about who in your life do you know that has received blood. Maybe you have a cousin who had cancer, or maybe your neighbor had an open heart surgery, or your grandma had a hip replacement, or your sister hemorrhage when she gave birth to your nephew. You know, all of those things can cause the need for a blood transfusion. You may not even know that it happened, but these are people in your life who are alive because blood donors
took the time to give. And when you think about that, I think more people are willing to donate because they think this could save someone's grandma or someone's son or daughter.
Yeah, that really helps put it in perspective. What are the most common reasons donors might be turned away at the donation site?
What does that mean?
And it's really no reflection on someone they are turned away that day?
Oh sure, yeah, Well, because of the rules are pretty extensive. It's estimated that I believe about a third of the population is eligible, So you know, a lot a lot of people might be ineligible for lots of different reasons. It could be as simple as you are exhibiting a temperature on the day of your donation, so I'll ask you to wait until you know you don't have a
temperature anymore. But the biggest reasons why people will be asked to wait to donate is medications that they are taking recent international travel, or you know, their vital signs aren't reading correctly temperature, or maybe your iron level is lower than what the requirements are. But all of those things are temporary for many reasons why you might not be able to donate on any given day. That could change in a couple of weeks or months to try again if you can't donate on a specific day.
How long is donated blood stored? How is it stored? Is it do you have like blood banks? Does it go straight to hospitals? How does that process work?
Yeah, I think this is a really good question because you know, we are familiar with the term blood bank, and you think that it must be like the bank where there's you know, the bank just just has lots of money, all sorts of blood in it, right right, You think that there's this big freezer, we just have all this blood just sitting there, and you know the reality is that it's not a ton of blood just
sitting on the shelf waiting to be used. A blood bank is really a revolving door because blood has a short shelf life. We can't stock pilot and hold on to it for you know, a rainy day when there aren't enough people donating. Red blood cells have a shelf life of about forty days, and from the time that you donate, it's typically at a hospital and being transfused within five days. It's it's a really quick process. So let's say you donate on Monday. By Wednesday, we have
all of you. You've processed your blood, it's gone through all the testing, and it's being released to a hospital. It could be the hospital by Thursday or Friday and being transfused by that point. So it comes in the door and it's out to a hospital just as quickly.
I want to reiterate the three potential types of blood donations, whole blood, platelets, and plasma. I know you went through it a few minutes ago, but can can you talk about each one individually, how long each one takes, and what who benefits from each of those different donations.
Yeah.
Well, when you donate whole blood, and we separate that in the different components, and it can go to lots of different kinds of patients, but primarily we use the red blood cells that can that can help anybody who's had a large volume of blood loss. When you donate platelets, platelets as longer process. Platelets and plasma both are a longer process, about about an hour to an hour and a half process, so it's a bigger time commitment. But
when you donate platelets, you're primarily helping cancer patients. About a quarter of all platelets go to help support cancer patients. Think about who you know who has had cancer. We all know someone that's had cancer. Their treatment is made possible by platelet transfusions, so that's so so important. And plasma is used frequently with burn victims, so anybody who's been in a fire or an accident that caused a fire often will need lots of plasma transfusions through that process.
And if our conversation thus far hasn't convinced someone to donate, if they haven't donated a while, or to become a first time donor, tell me about this great program you have, I guess in the six year now with the National Football League.
Yeah, well, we partner with the NFL to offer a fun gift. So anybody who comes to donate blood in January is automatically entered to wind two tickets to the Super Bowl. So if you donate this month, you may end up with a prize package two tickets to the Super Bowl and New or Leans. It would include your airfare and your hotel and even some spending money.
That's awesome.
How can we find an American Red Cross donation site near us?
You can find blood drives on our website red crossblood dot org. You can also call us at one eight hundred Red Cross. We also have a really cool blood donor app, and after you donate, the app will actually tell you where your blood goes. So when I donate, within a couple weeks after my donation, the app is showing me where my blood is in the process. So I will get an alert in the app that says my blood is now being tested, my blood is now
being shipped. Now my blood has been received at you know this hospital and tells you which hospital your blood goes to. I think that is so so cool.
Redcrossblood dot Org is Rodney Wilson with the American Red Cross discussing the fact that January is National Blood Donor Month. Roll up your sleeve and become a donor like Rodney and I. Rodney, I really appreciate the time.
Best of luck, Thank you so much.
Our second conversation this week not a pleasant one. The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund is out with the latest numbers on law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty and the.
News is not good.
Let's discuss it as we bring in Rosa Gwigson's executive director of the nl EOMF National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. Rosa, good to talk to you again. I appreciate the time.
I appreciate you having me many thank you.
So why the jaw dropping twenty five percent increase in law enforcement officer's death in twenty twenty four compared to twenty twenty three.
Well, we're still seeing a lot of firearm fatalities. We're still seeing a lot of fatalities when it comes to traffic related deaths. It's just I mean, I wish I knew why. I wish I had an answer, we could fix it. Our gunfire related fatalities. Out of the one hundred and forty seven total of line of duty deaths that we had, fifty two of those were gunfire related fatalities.
That's up thirteen percent from twenty twenty three, and sadly, the the of those, we had nine officers that were killed by just traffic enforcement, so you know, pulling people over on traffic and the next largest grouping was officers attempting to make an arrest and serve warrants. So we're obviously still seeing a lot of that. Of the fifty two related fatalities gunfire related, that doesn't count the number of officers that are shot and shot at, so I
do not have a number. I was trying to look for a solid number for all of twenty twenty four for officers that are shot at. Right, the only thing I could find was with the National FOP had up that from January first to October thirty first of twenty twenty four, they said three hundred and one officers were shot. But again that doesn't include the full year, and it
does include officers that were shot at. I'm going to still keep looking to see if I can find that number, but so far I haven't had any.
Look, Yeah, as you mentioned it, so it's a lot.
I mean, yeah, it's dangerous, don't there.
Well, without question, I want to talk about that in a moment. As you mentioned, gunfire not surprisingly the leading cause of death. But again we continue to see this increase year over year of traffic related incidents where off at law enforcement officers lives are lost.
Yes, we had forty six, as I mentioned, forty six total crash related fatalities. That's a forty eight percent from last year. Twenty nine of those were fatal crashes, so those were either single vehicle crashes or just you know, regular motor vehicle crashes to include motorcycle crashes. And then seventeen officers were killed as struck by as, meaning they were outside of their cruisers on the side of the road.
Some of them were already tended to traffic to crashes that had already occurred, you know, for various different reasons. And I mean honestly, again, I wish, you know, we knew exactly why, but we've got you know, impaired drivers that are causing these distracted drivers, people not minding their
move over laws. The states that you have the move over laws I think you mentioned earlier maybe trying to push something federally to have all states have all fifty states have these move over laws, because there are some states that don't have them.
Yeah, explain it, Explain exactly what that is, ROSA. What is a move over law and why don't we have federal legislation to make that mandatory across the country.
So a move over law is when you are approaching an officer that has his lights on, he's on the side of the road, it's clear whether he whether he's got somebody pulled over or tending to an accident that's
already occurred. If you can safely change lanes to move one lane over, if you're in the lane closest to the officer, you know that's on the shoulder or the side of the road, to try to move over again safely, if you can change into the lane next to you left towards the left, to just create a little more distance between the car that you're operating and the officer that's on the side of the road, and that includes the person that he has stopped or the person that
they're attempting to help, because they can be affected by any of these accidents that are occurring and killing police officers nationwide. But again, not all fifty states have those laws, and that's.
What you refer to that are called struck by fatalities, And that number went from eight in twenty twenty three to seventeen last year in twenty twenty four, a one hundred and thirteen percent increase.
Correct, it's astounding, and that was our biggest clearly our biggest jump at percentage wise, but it's a lot, a lot, And I think I brought this up earlier also where three officers were killed in one incident in Palm Beach County. Just three motor officers were on the side of the road and they were even on the grass. It's not like they were they were on the shoulder. They were even further off the road on a grass and they were struck and killed by an impaired driver.
Yeah, And as often happens in those cases, it was someone who was either distracted or just in this case, lost control of their vehicle and slammed into those three officers, killing two of them.
Yeah.
No, I'm actually killing three because the two the third died a few days later. He made it to the hospital that he did pass a few days later.
So yeah, terrible.
Tell me about what nl EO MF the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.
Is and what you do. Let's start off with the history of the group.
So the history here.
This was.
Mario Biaggi. He was a retired MIPD officer. It became a congressman for New York. It was kind of his brain child to with certain degree, he put together a bill, managed to get it pushed through the House and through the Senate. It was eventually signed off by President Reagan in October of nineteen eighty four. They had five years to make this all come to fruition or then it was going to expire. The permission to do it was going to expire. So they finally decided on Judiciary Square
as the location. Money was raised, which back then was eleven million dollars, which is still even today a lot of money, but back then that was a boatload of money. They hired architect Davis Buckley to design it, and ground was broken across the street here at the Memorial in nineteen eighty nine, and it was eventually dedicated on October
fifteenth of nineteen ninety one by President George Bush. At that time, the first names that were engraved were twelve thousand, five hundred officers whose names were engraved then, and we currently have twenty four thy sixty seven and obviously more to come this year. So last year we ended up having to put on a tension on the Memorial because we ran out. Sadly, we ran out of space. So now as yes as you visit the memorial, see there's another tier that goes all the way around, and we
added on the new section. Last year, we added another eighteen names to the new part. So we're already starting to use it.
And this isn't a recent thing.
This goes back to the first known death of a US law enforcement officer, back what in seventeen eighty six.
Is that right, seventeen eighty six, that's correct, Yes, and that's our oldest stuff.
You also have a museum which may not be as well known as some of the others there in Washington, but the National Law Enforcement Museum is also there.
Tell me a little bit about that.
Yeah, to our museum is top of the line. It's the only museum that is dedicated the nation that's dedicated to American law enforcement, and you know, we try to put together you can sort of walk through the walk in the shoes of American law enforcement and go through the history. We have a simulator, a Shoot Dunk Shoot simulator. We also have a driving simulator. It's super fun, super cool and different kind of games you can play on both of those. But it's a beautiful, top of the
line museum. I encourage anybody that's ever in DC, you're coming to visit, to please stop buy four four four East Street, Northwest Washington, d C. And the memorial itself is just across the street on the other side of the street.
On the side the website to get more information is n l e O m F dot org National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund dot org.
Rose, I really appreciate your time as always, be.
Well, Manny as well. Thank you so much.
N L e O m F dot org is the website, and that brings this latest edition of iHeartRadio Communities to a close.
Until next time, I'm Manny Munos.