By Fred C. Campbell, MD
I grew up in Waco watching both my parents donating blood regularly. My mother was only 4 feet, 11 inches tall, but what a trouper when it came to giving blood! To them, it was the normal, right thing to do.
When I got to Texas A&M University, I saw a poster on campus during my freshman year about donating blood, and I gave my first unit on my 19th birthday. Later, I found out I was type O-negative (a universal donor), unlike my parents, and could give to anyone relatively safely. Over the years, my units were often split in quarters to transfuse infants (some with leukemia). I just kept on giving; it felt like the normal, right thing to do.
I have been amazingly healthy and consider it a privilege to give regularly, often two units at a time. Last March I crossed the 30-gallon mark (240 units) in the course of 50 years, which is roughly five times a year.
As a health professional, I realize that even healthy people (like my wife, who has a donor vein issue) cannot always donate. Many people are too ill to do so. And as a person of faith, I feel compelled to alleviate suffering through this fortunate ability to donate blood. I applaud the thousands of my fellow community members who do likewise when they can!
Fred C. Campbell, MD, is an internal medicine physician and associate professor of medicine at UT Health San Antonio.
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