Written by: Joshua Bianchi, staff writer
November 14 marked the second blood drive this semester at Bryan college. Students could be seen most of the day dodging the rain and cold while trying to get inside the already-packed bus.
Between noon and 6pm there was a constant line of anxious donors waiting for their turn to give blood.
Some who came from SGA were Student Body President, Andrew Apple, Freshman Class Senator Dillon Melvin and Events Coordinator Isaac Tenpenny.
The cheerful nurses onboard made the process quick and relatively painless. 5:45 pm was the busiest time for the drive, with the line nearly going out the doors into the rain outside. Donors crammed inside The wait took roughly three hours, as the nurses worked to keep donors moving.
Donors began the process in a small room where they filled out a questionnaire about health, hygiene, sexual habits and medical history. After completing the forms, donors were tested for blood iron and blood pressure to make sure donation was safe, then given a labelled blood bag and escorted to a bench where they waited for a bed to open up.
The actual time taken to finish pumping the blood took around ten minutes, with an average donation of around 500 ml of blood. The actual needle insertion was not nearly as bad as it always seems in your head, as long as you don’t look while the nurses prepare it. The blood drive in general was successful, because so many students showed up.
Joshua Bianchi is a freshman from Chicago. He is currently enrolled in the Bryan Triangle as a writer, and as the politics and philosophy correspondent for the Bryan Triangle Podcast. He is majoring in American History and hopes to end up teaching college-level history classes in his future.
