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2003-09-05

Blood Donor's
September 11th Story
?Jean Zettler Blood Donor

I confess I never even thought of going down to the Pentagon to volunteer - partly through fear, and partly because I don't have medical training and didn't have disaster response training. I did try to give blood however. But since the phones were so overwhelmed at both the Red Cross and Inova Blood Donor Services, I finally just got in the car and drove over. I'd been told when I was much younger that I could not donate blood for health reasons, but decided to see if things had changed - and they had. Since there was a long wait at the Inova Blood Donor Center in Annandale, I offered to volunteer, like many others. From 2 p.m. until about 1 a.m. the next day, I stacked drinks, got ice, passed out food and did anything else I could to feel I was "doing something". I wasn't the only one.

I experienced the incredible outpouring of people's humanity and need to come together: people who waited for over six hours and into the early hours of the morning to donate blood, people who brought their whole families to wait, although children were not eligible to give blood.
I experienced seeing the extreme disappointment on the faces of people who were turned away from donating; watching the dedication of the medical staff who got less than three hours sleep between Sept. 11 and Sept. 12. I was amazed and overjoyed at the generosity of individuals who brought juice and cookies to the center, as well as the plentiful contributions of local restaurants and businesses - including a towing service that packed the back of one of their trucks with ice, juices and soda and kept it outside the center all night, with the truck radio broadcasting the news to all the people outside on the grass who could not fit inside the center, but were still waiting to donate.

If I hadn't volunteered that day, or the next, I would have missed seeing people come together like they did. I would have missed seeing the adults and children desperate to help out and do something while they were waiting and the young boy so thrilled when I asked him to pass out the pizza. I would have missed, on Sept. 12, the young Army private who came to give blood as soon as Fort Belvoir stood down and he could leave the base. And although the Blood Center initially said they had their limit for the day, they allowed the young man to come in. After all, who knew where he might be in a month, and he needed to think and feel he might be helping himself or someone else in the military who might need the blood. And I think it helped both those donating blood and the medical personnel to see "a man in uniform."

If I hadn't volunteered those days, I would have missed heart-rendering scenes like the man who served in Vietnam who left the Blood Center in tears because they would not let him donate blood since he had hepatitis in Vietnam, yet he felt he wanted to do more for his country. I would have missed the American Airlines flight attendant who had been given the wrong directions on the evening of Sept. 11 for the site of a candle lighting vigil for American Airlines personnel to remember their colleagues who had perished earlier that day. The flight attendant was embarrassed to come into the waiting room of the Blood Center in her uniform, concerned that the sight of her might disturb those waiting to donate. And I would have missed meeting and talking to other volunteers, such as the State Department employee who was supposed to have headed back to his post the morning of the 11th, but since that was not possible, he came to give blood and stayed for two days, doing anything from directing traffic in the morning to turning people away at night.

Yes, I cried a lot that day and in days to come. But some of my tears on Sept. 11 and 12 were tears of gratitude that people were as eager as I was to reach out and help the potential victims of the day's events. And in doing so, we helped each other slowly come to grip with the day's events. Since Sept. 11, I have taken the disaster preparedness training offered by the Red Cross and become more involved in crisis/emergency management issues and duties, as well as donating blood on a regular basis. How did Sept. 11 affect me? It made me realize how much I had to feel grateful for, and that there were things I needed to do, such as DAT training and giving blood, so that I wouldn't feel as helpless should something similar happen again.

Of course, I've been donating blood on a regular basis (every 8-9 weeks) since 9/11/01.