12 VITALITY Winter 2023 WELLNESS Community Blood Center of the Ozarks (CBCO) needs 200 blood donations daily to meet patients’ needs in more than 40 area hospitals. Yet only 3% of the population donates blood, while 40% is eligible to give blood. “Not everybody can give blood, so those of us who can should,” says Cindy Kolkmeyer, who donates blood every two months, a habit she has maintained for more than two decades. “You never know when you might need it.” She has donated more than 120 pints of blood. “It feels like the right thing to do,” says the pharmacist at the CMH Senior Pharmacy. She sees the importance of blood donation through her job serving residents in CMH’s long-term care facilities. “I admit long-term care residents, and there are times Donating blood: when I see they’ve been given blood for various reasons,” she says. Kolkmeyer donates at blood drives organized by CMH through CBCO. The blood drives will be in the fellowship hall at Southern Hills Baptist Church in Bolivar until they can return to the Community Rooms at the hospital after construction. LEARNING WHERE IT GOES “It makes a difference,” she says. “With the organization we use, they send an email with where the blood goes. You won’t think about it and then get an email saying where it was used.” CBCO also uses the Thank-The-Donor™ program that lets patients send an anonymous message of gratitude to the donor(s) whose blood they received. “Thank you so much for your donation,” wrote the family of a patient who received a blood transfusion at CMH. “My mom has been very sick and could not walk, eat or even stand. Once she received a blood transfusion, Cindy Kolkmeyer BLOOD DONOR STATS CMH patients received these transfusions in 2022 from the Community Blood Center of the Ozarks: 32 PLASMA transfusions PLATELET transfusions 101 It feels like the right thing to do
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy ODQ1MTY=