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It’s in their blood Although he hates needles, Richard Allen says "it's worth the little pinch that you get" to know you may be saving three lives.
The Allens of Manoa were
250 donors needed daily
the first to give blood as a family
and are still going strong
6 exceed 200 pintsBy Helen Altonn
haltonn@starbulletin.comAllen, 62, of Manoa, began donating blood on a dare at age 17 with his parents' consent, going to the Honolulu Blood-Plasma Bank at the Queen's Medical Center.
He is now the Blood Bank of Hawaii's top double-century donor with a record 238 pints.
Giving blood is a way of life, not only for Allen, but his wife, Kay, and their children, Jon and Kathy-Lyn. Kay Allen is a century donor (100 pints or more). Jon, 27, became the youngest superdonor (56 pints or more) when he was 25.
Kathy-Lyn was a donor before going to college on the mainland, and continued whenever she came home. Now married and living in Chicago, she and her husband, John Binkowski, donate whenever they return here.
The Allens estimate as a family that they've saved up to 1,230 lives because each donation is separated into three components.
When he started donating as a Roosevelt High School student, Richard Allen recalled: "I said, 'This is easy, it's a good thing, it makes me feel good.' I just kept on."
His 100th pint was the first donation in the new Blood Bank of Hawaii building at 2043 Dillingham Blvd. "That was a kick to get 100," he said. "Now it's 200. That was a way off, too, but now it's passed by."
Allen, owner of J.R. Allen Enterprises, has never missed a date to give blood every eight weeks, even if it means leaving late or returning early from a trip.
He will donate his 239th pint on Saturday. Kay Allen will donate her 107th pint, and Jon will give his 65th pint.
Besides abhorring needles, the senior Allen says he doesn't fish because he "can't stand the sight of blood." So, what drives him back to the Blood Bank every two months?
"A lot of it is a lot of people I've met who have needed blood or used blood, and it's a good feeling when you do it," he said. "Hopefully not for a long time, but maybe sometime I'm going to need blood and someone will help me out."
Allen said he didn't push his family to join him as a donor. "You can't tell people to donate," he said.
His wife accompanied him to the Blood Bank after they married in 1966, and began donating in 1981 because "it was something she wanted to do," he said.
The kids would go with them, he said, "because they had Mrs. Fields cookies down there, and they could hook one of them and drink Coke out of a bottle, which they had never seen."
The youths, both competitive swimmers, began donating blood with their parents' permission when they were 17, and the Allens were the first to donate blood as a family.
"Every time I donate, I'm thinking about saving lives," said Jon Allen, who works for Verizon Hawaii. Last year, he donated in the name of a co-worker's husband who had leukemia, he said.
The top double-century donor has seen a lot of changes in the process and technology over the years.
At Queen's, donors would lie on flat tables, looking at pictures on the ceiling, he said. "If you were a man, you had pinup pictures. If you were a woman, you had a nice scene like on a beach or something." Now donors have comfortable recliner chairs and television.
For open heart surgery in the early days, Allen said a person had to be at Queen's at a specific time to donate blood, which had already been matched and "would go right to the heart."
He donated blood to patients he never knew but received thank-you notes and gifts. Once, when he was 18 or 19, he got a call to pick up something at the airport freight office.
"It was from somebody on Maui, a huge box of mangoes I had never seen before," he said. A note said the person who received his blood was getting along well, he said.
After donating blood for a man who had open heart surgery, he received a Christmas card from the patient's wife thanking him for giving her six more months with her husband.
"Something like that really hits you," Allen said. "That's what it's all about."
People in those days could donate to their own account in case they needed blood, he said. That stopped, and people were allowed to donate one pint a year for a family. He and his wife supplied blood for about six families of people they knew.
"Now you just donate to the 'gift of life,'" he pointed out. "If somebody needs it, they get it."
Allen recognizes as he grows older and "things go wrong with you," the day may come that he can't donate anymore. "I've got to face that sometime, but I'd like to hit 300 pints."
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What if you or a loved one needed a lifesaving blood transfusion and there was no blood? 250 donors needed daily
The Blood Bank of Hawaii says it needs 250 donors every day to prevent such a catastrophe.
More blood is needed than ever before because of the increased population and advanced surgical procedures, says Stephanie Rosso, Blood Bank spokeswoman.
Most loyal donors are from the World War II generation who started when they were young and in the military and kept on giving, she said.
"Those people at some point will be ineligible. Somehow, we need to instill that commitment in the younger generation."
The Blood Bank had 27,246 donors last year who contributed 48,170 pints of whole blood. Of those, 5,681 were regular donors who gave blood three or more times in the year.
As of March 4 there were six double-century donors giving more than 200 pints of whole blood, 373 century donors giving 100 pints or more and 1,860 superdonors giving 56 pints or more.
The donation process takes about one to 1 1/2 hours. It involves answering a questionnaire related mostly to health and travels, a confidential interview and a miniature physical. Actual blood collection takes five to eight minutes.
"How often can you save three lives in an hour?" Rosso asked.
Each pint of blood is separated into platelets, red blood cells and plasma.
Small test tubes of every donation are sent daily for testing at the Puget Sound Regional Laboratory before the blood is distributed for use. Results are back in 24 hours.
About 35 percent of the blood in Hawaii is used for cancer patients, 30 percent for surgery involving newborns, 25 percent for open-heart surgery patients, and 10 percent for accident and trauma victims.
The Blood Bank tries to maintain a four- to five-day supply of blood. If it falls below three days, that's considered critical.
Donors must be in good health, 18 or older (17 with parental consent), weigh at least 110 pounds and present a valid photo ID.
The main donor center is at 2043 Dillingham Blvd. There is a downtown donor center at 126 Queen St., a bloodmobile and small MASH units that travel across the state.
For more information, call 845-9966.
Helen Altonn
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Six Hawaii residents have the distinction of being double-century blood donors, giving 200 pints or more of whole blood over the years. 6 islanders’ donations
By Helen Altonn
exceed 200 pints
haltonn@starbulletin.comFollowing close behind Richard Allen, the state's leading donor, are Robert Howell, 78, of Nuuanu, with 222 pints; and Paul Adler, of Makakilo, 201 pints. Edward Pereira, 75, of Laupahoehoe, on the Big Island, hit 211 pints and is that island's top donor.
The two other volunteers who exceeded 200 pints declined to be identified.
Howell, 78, said he started donating blood "just to help out a little bit."
"Like they say, with 2 percent of us donating and 60 percent getting blood, sometimes that doesn't work out right," he said.
Howell was working with the civil engineers at Hickam Air Force Base when he began donating, then transferred to Wheeler Army Air Field. He served in the Air Force and went back to Hickam's civilian engineers as a technician for 46 years until retiring in 1988. He continued donating blood all that time, noting his wife has had five bypasses.
Adler, 61, who owns Neighbor Friendly Walls, which manufactures pre-concrete fencing, came here 10 years ago from South Africa with letters, pins and medals received during 30 years of blood donations there.
The Blood Bank credited him for those donations, but he had to wait three years before he could donate here because of concerns about malaria, he said.
Besides giving whole blood, Adler has donated only platelets 14 times. This involves removing blood from one arm, separating the platelets, then returning the rest of the blood through the other arm.
Adler said he began donating because a friend, "a general joker," talked him into going on a Sunday.
"I don't enjoy injections," he said. "I thought, 'I'll go this one time and that's it.'" He found he "could tolerate the needle," and has been going ever since.
Pereira achieved notoriety at age 15 when his picture appeared across the country holding the Dec. 7, 1941, Star-Bulletin. He recalled how people told him, "Keep the change."
He served in the Air Force during World War II and drove an ambulance for the City and County of Honolulu for 33 years until retiring.
"When I got through my shift, I would go directly to the blood bank," he said.
"I felt hurt when I used to see children, young kids burned or drowned, or other emergencies. Older people, too. I felt people, they need blood."
He remembers when donors going to the old facility at the Queen's Medical Center were given a small can of beer. "Some guy must have cracked up, a traffic accident, and they stopped giving alcohol."
The last time he donated blood was in 1999 before operations for cancer of the esophagus and right lung made him ineligible as a donor.
"Every time the commercial comes on (about blood donations), I feel so bad," he said. "I really want to donate my blood."