Blood Shortage Is Over

As a boy, Brendan Barrett often accompanied his parents to the local blood bank. It was a trip Barrett’s parents made regularly and one he planned to make himself when he got old enough.

But as the years went by, Barrett, 23, never got around to it--until terrorists struck on the East Coast last month.

In the days after the attacks, Barrett became one of 4,300 Ventura County residents who for the first time gave blood or pledged a pint.

“Something like this has never happened before,” said Carolyn Tyner, longtime executive director of the 25-year-old United Blood Services of Ventura County, the area’s only blood bank.

The donations and pledges have effectively ended the county’s two-year blood shortage, Tyner said, and allowed the nonprofit group’s 81 employees to ease up on the aggressive soliciting that had been necessary seven days a week.

“It was something I always thought about doing but never really got around to,” Barrett, an export assistant at an Oxnard drum manufacturer, said this week. “But there was a real sense of urgency last month.”

Unlike those who avoid giving blood because they fear needles or disease, Barrett was eager to give after hearing the public pleas.

“There was nothing about it that scared me because my mom was a medical technician and I had seen blood drawn many times,” he said.

Barrett said he now plans to donate often because his B-negative blood type is rare.

For Laura Barratt, the decision to donate was more agonizing.

As a little girl, Barratt, 36, watched her father donate so much blood over the years that he became a member of a small clique that measured its gifts in gallons.

Then her 36-year-old father died from a brain aneurysm. And although doctors said his frequent donations didn’t cause his death, the youngster was convinced her dad had given too much blood.

“It was something I swore I would never do,” said Barratt, a saleswoman who lives with her 5-year-old son, Levi, in Newbury Park.

On Sept. 11, after watching the attacks on television, Barratt realized it was time to face her fear. She picked up the telephone and called the blood bank.

A day later, she gave her first pint. And her first thought after leaving the blood bank was of her father.

“Now I know how my dad must have felt all those times,” she said. “I’m helping someone who needs it.”

Unlike other counties that have multiple blood banks, Ventura County relies solely on United Blood Services offices in Ventura, Camarillo and Thousand Oaks to supply the area’s seven hospitals with 30,000 units of blood annually.

The demand on the agency is about 600 pints a week. Each donor can give only 5 pints of blood a year.

“We’ve had a blood shortage for about two years,” Tyner said. “We really had been begging all the time. I mean we go to the media for help, to businesses and health fairs, anywhere where we can find willing people.”

The day of the attacks, hundreds lined up for hours at United Blood Services’ offices, but because blood only lasts about 42 days, the organization accepted just 180 pints, none of which was sent to New York.

The remaining donors were asked to fill out pledge cards in which they promised to give blood in the future.

During the week of Sept. 11, 6,500 pledge cards were filled out. About 4,300 were from first-time donors.

Workers at United Blood Services have spent the last few days calling people who pledged and making appointments that now fill the agency’s calendar for the rest of the month, Tyner said.

At each of the agency’s offices, nine donors can give at once during appointments scheduled seven days a week.

The blood is stored in a large refrigerator in the Ventura office while samples are tested at an Arizona lab.

Once the samples are determined to be free of diseases--a process that takes about three days--the pints are delivered to hospitals.

On a recent Tuesday afternoon, Martha Espinosa, 45, of Santa Paula and Leticia Estoppey, 32, of Fillmore sat hooked up to needles in the Ventura blood bank.

Around the corner, employees passed by a large white wall where donors have written messages to rescuers and soldiers.

Agency officials plan to keep the wall as a place where people can continue to write their thoughts about the attacks and the victims.

Estoppey said she used to be a regular donor, but until the Sept. 11 tragedy hadn’t given blood in about a year.

“I’m hoping everyone will be inspired to keep giving after they start,” she said. “I don’t give a lot of my extras of my time because I’m busy with work and family. I just realized this is something I can do.”

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Times staff writer Tina Dirmann contributed to this report.