Dell Rapids Donor Makes a Habit of Giving Life

Some habits are hard to break and in the case of 81 year-old Fern Nemmers of Dell Rapids, her habit of donating blood has entered its seventh decade, has totaled 71 pints and most importantly for others, is a habit she doesn’t intend to break.

 

Sharing the important things in life might have come naturally to Fern who grew up on a farm near Dell Rapids in a family of seven sisters and eight brothers where she professes, “We always had enough people for a ball game.” And it was her sister, then a nurse at McKennan Hospital in Sioux Falls, who called Fern one day to let her know that the hospital needed blood. Fern, just 18 at the time, had never given blood before but she along with two of her brothers and a friend quickly jumped into the family car and drove the 20 miles to the hospital.

 

“I was afraid until they took the blood but it didn’t even hurt,” said Fern who was feeling fine until she returned to the waiting room. “I remember coming back into the room, looking out the hospital window and fainting right onto the lap of our friend.” That unexpected (and uncommon) experience hasn’t, however, kept Fern from continuing to donate blood and becoming a regular at the Mobile Blood Unit that visits Dell Rapids every quarter.

 

“I keep a list of donors that currently has 224 people on it,” said Linda Hines, blood drive coordinator for the Avera Dells Area Health Center noting that the group has donated a total of 3977 units of blood since the Bloodmobile began coming to Dell Rapids in January of 1992. Hines expects that number to pass the 4,000-unit milestone at the Bloodmobile’s next visit on January 8, a total that will, if the past is any indicator, likely include another pint from Fern.

 

And although the next blood donation will be similar in many respects to her first visit some 61 years ago, one item that has changed for Fern and for all donors is the number of questions in the screening process, a once simple procedure that basically asked whether a potential donor was feeling well and healthy. That short list of interview questions changed dramatically on May 13, 1985 when blood service agencies, in an effort to safeguard the nation’s blood supply, implemented a series of questions on Human Immunodeficiency Virus or HIV.

 

“I remember the day clearly,” said Rita Nelson, donor recruitment representative for Community Blood Bank (CBB), a non-profit,joint, cooperative venture of Avera McKennan Hospital & University Health Center and Sanford Medical Center in Sioux Falls. But even though the changes brought on by HIV may have complicated the process of donating blood, it also helped to further insure, in the case of CBB, the safety of the 25,000 pints of blood it annually collects and makes available to patients in 29 area hospitals.

 

Even then, Nelson is quick to point out that patients aren’t the only ones who benefit from the HIV and other testing required by the Federal Drug Administration. “Blood donors receive a mini-physical every time they donate blood,” said Nelson noting that CBB performs 13 tests ranging from taking a person’s temperature and blood pressure to testing for the West Nile Virus and hepatitis.

 

Donors also receive other benefits beyond the satisfaction of saving a life and the delicious snacks that follow every visit. Studies have shown that most men and menopausal women who give blood two or three times a year also reduce the risk of heart disease by lowering the iron stored in their blood. In effect, donors not only help save the lives of others, they may help save their own as well.

 

The benefit enjoyed by donors like Fern isn’t, however, so much what donating blood can do for them, as it is their desire to help others. What is rare about Fern, something that sets her off from many of her fellow donors is that only 6% of the population shares the same A Negative blood type. Combine that with the time she volunteers to her church, the local school, the museum and to others less fortunate, and you see just how rare, not to mention valuable, the Ferns of the world really are.

 

The only one to disagree with that statement may be a certain four-point buck Fern shot on the opening day of deer season this year and then again, he’s not talking.

 

To find the date of the next blood drive in your community, please visit www.cbblifeblood.org or www.unitedbloodservices.org. Remember, the gift of blood is an awesome gift with life saving results!

 

Reprinted with permission by of Golden West Telecommunications