First responders engage in blood-donation competition

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This article was published 27/06/2023 (1192 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

They normally fight fires, rush patients to hospitals, or enforce laws, but now they are competing to see who can donate the most blood.

Members of the Winnipeg Police Service, Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service, STARS Air Ambulance and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are taking part in Sirens for Life, a friendly competition to donate blood that kicked off Tuesday at Canadian Blood Services.

Jamie McClintock, a Winnipeg paramedic, knows what it’s like to need blood.

“In 2009, I was a young, healthy adult playing college-level hockey in the U.S,” McClintock said, choking back tears. “I never anticipated I would need blood or be personally affected and need a blood transfusion.”

She was on vacation at her family cottage near Lake Winnipeg when she lost consciousness while out boating. She was rushed to the hospital in Ashern and after being stabilized, she was transferred to the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg. A CT scan showed she had suffered three separate brain bleeds and a hemorrhagic stroke.

Her white blood cells were alarmingly high and additional tests were done.

“It was at this time that my family discovered that their healthy 21-year-old athlete (daughter) was now a 21-year-old cancer patient,” McClintock said.

She had two separate types of leukemia, and was one of only 500 documented cases of such an occurrence in the world at the time. While at HSC, she was put into a medically induced coma.

“While I was in the medically induced coma, I was receiving 24-hour-a-day chemotherapy treatments for 38 days, during this time I was dependent on daily blood transfusions and blood products to keep me alive,” McClintock said.

After 38 days, McClintock was brought out of her medically induced coma and told she had cancer. She spent 55 days in care at HSC and during that time required approximately 75 units of blood as well as other blood products such as plasma and platelets.

As of September, McClintock will be leukemia-free for 14 years.

Her experience taught her that anyone could need blood at any time, without notice.

Kristy McFee, community development manager for Canadian Blood Services said 17.5 million Canadians are eligible to donate blood plasma — but less than two per cent actually do.

“A small group of regular donors is meeting the needs of our entire country and this is unsustainable,” McFee said, “a donation of any type doesn’t just make a difference, it makes all the difference.”

Winnipeg police Insp. George Labossiere said he understands the need for blood donations because of his job.

“Our work as police officers exposes us to life’s most challenging events… Many of which do, in fact, include the need for immediate emergency services,” Labossiere said.

“As police, we do what we can to get (people) to hospitals, but all those efforts mean very little if on arrival we find that there is no blood available to provide the services that are required,” he said.

Summer is usually the slowest season for blood donations, prompting Canadian Blood Services to conduct the Sirens for Life campaign, which is in its 12th year.

In Winnipeg, 4,500 appointments are available this summer.

Donors can visit blood.ca, download the GiveBlood app, or call 1 888 2DONATE (1-888-236-6283) to book an appointment.

graham.mcdonald@freepress.mb.ca