Are you Blood Type O- ("Oh" Negative)?

Update (10:00 AM): I spoke with someone at the surgeon's office and they state that they will need 4 pints of blood for his surgery. They didn't seem too worried about any potential lack of blood. If you want to give and are O-, go 3 days prior to the surgery (surgery is on May 1, so that would be Monday, 28.Apr.08) and note that the donation is for Samuel Hinojosa. It will cost $100 as it is a targeted donation, so this it totally optional to target the donation. If you want to just help out, donate blood and do not request that it be targeted for him. (end of Update)

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This all came up because the wife of a holy man I know said in an email message in response to one of my earlier posts, "So what is Samuel's blood type? I'm a wuss that never gave blood, but for Samuel I would." Samuel's blood type is O- and that means that you can only take blood of the exact same type, hence quantities of this blood type are typically in low supply.

Rowena found that the Stanford Blood Center has their inventory of blood supplies on-line! How awesome is that? Well, it is awesome (like - cool), but also scary (like, dang - they are short!)

To do the sort of surgery that will be done on Samuel requires an extraordinary amount of blood. This is because when they do this procedure, the heart is stopped. A machine called a Heart Lung Machine does the work of the heart and lungs. It pumps the blood though the body and oxygenates the blood. This Google search has tons of information on the machine.

It is this piece of technology that made open heart surgery possible. The problem is that the machine itself need a lot of blood to prime. A lot of information on this is on a page I'll link to here in a moment. However, there is an image of a heart with the hoses attached, so if such a graphic will upset you, don't go to that article! Here is the article.

I am a believer in donating blood and have donated over 2 gallons of blood over time. I have nothing on my brother Jorge who has donated over 8 gallons. This is his personal mission and to that mission he is ever faithful. Blood is a gift that he gives in massive quantities. Blood centers around the world are always in need of blood, so please give when you are able.

At any rate, if at this time, you are blood type O- and would be interested in making a specific donation for Samuel, see the update above! There is a designated donation process at the Stanford Blood Center that is documented here. Rowena is going to call the center today to get more specifics and will find out if we can setup a targeted giving process for Samuel's surgery. I'm not sure it is needed, but in looking at the chart on the inventory link, I'm a little concerned.

Fell free to give us a call - you know our number, if not, leave a comment on this blog article and your name. Odds are we have your number, or email address and can connect. Either way, I'll be putting up another article once we learn more on that process and if we will have something setup.