Crowds of donors wandered around the small gym at Parker. Students, faculty, and parents were waiting in large grey lounge chairs with anticipation and anxiety. The room was filled with serious and intense individuals, there to donate blood. Red Cross registered nurses assisted the donors.

“This is the first time we are having a Red Cross Blood drive,” School Nurse Anne Nelson said. “We are partnering with Dr. A. Kyle Mack who works with a lot of sickle cell patients. His goal was to get more donations from people of color, so the blood they have for sickle cell patients match more closely.

Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) is an inherited blood disorder. It affects approximately 100,000 Americans and is particularly common among those with sub-Saharan African ancestry. There is a need to address this widespread illness, and Parker wanted to help. Parker hosted a blood drive on October 23, primarily focused on collecting blood for children with SCD but also for others in need.

Parker will host another drive on March 6th. Parker parent Dr. Kyle Mack is hoping that people will give at both times. Mack said, “There is a 56 day window between the two events when folks can donate blood.”

Mack is a physician in the Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and the Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Mack has a goal of supplying blood to as many children with Sickle Cell Disease as is feasibly possible. “The purpose of this drive,” Mack said, “is to get as many students, staff and faculty to give blood to help save a life.”

Each child with Sickle Cell disease requires 80–100 units of blood per month. In order to achieve this goal, Mack will be assisting Lurie Children’s Hospital as they host blood drives throughout the city. “The fall and winter tend to be slow months,” said Mack,  “so the more blood we can collect for patients the better.

According to Nelson, they were interested in getting as much blood as possible.  “The Red Cross can use the blood no matter when, and there is always a shortage,” Nelson said. “It was a successful drive. We had about 40 people signed up for it.”
“The goal of the blood drive was to get as much blood as possible,” Sophomore Rohan Dhingra, student liaison for the Parker drive, said, “particularly from students and adults of African origin.”

 In a Morning Ex hosted by Dr. Mack, he stressed the importance of donating blood, particularly donations from African Americans in order to help children with SCD. “We are aiming to collect as much blood from persons of African descent,” said Mack, “since their blood is an even better match for our patients with Sickle Cell Disease, who are also largely of African descent.”

While this blood drive was focused on accumulating enough blood to help SCD patients, blood that was not eligible for SCD patients was accepted as well. In reflection, sophomore Aziza Mabrey-Wakefield said, “donating blood was such a great experience, and I was happy I could be a partner in the fight against sickle cell disease.”