Giving Blood, Sweat, & Tears at Work!

When someone uses the term "Blood, Sweat, & Tears" we get the idea of hard work. For sure, if you work in Food Service you are WORKING HARD! I guarantee it. You will sweat, at least at some point. Tears? There are pounds/kilograms of onions to peel and prepare each day. Blood? Hopefully not! Unless you have agreed to be part of the ships blood bank for patients. Then I most definitely hope you get to give blood!

Mercy Ships has a unique blood donation system. They only use whole blood that contains plasma because they can’t separate it on the ship. The crew on-board the ship are literally a “walking blood bank” because there is no means of storing blood past 72 hours here on the vessel.

On the Africa Mercy they test every donor’s blood before the need arises. This allows the lab to call crew members immediately to start the process of donating blood.



I am O-positive. I am told it's pretty common. Laughing I tell the nurse "So I am considered generic!". But in this case it's pretty good to be generic. The blood can be used universally for other patients.

Being a manager I carry a pager on the ship. [I know right? You thought pagers were a thing of the past.] They paged me and I called the lab. They needed blood because they were running low. Surgery was currently happening and there were more planned the next day. I went down right away. The next morning I received a text page saying my blood was being used in a patient! -- It's a pretty amazing experience to know that my blood has helped give life in at least 3 African countries so far.

The map behind me is signed by donors from around the world. Blood that has saved lives!

Thank you for your support by partnering with us! You make it possible to serve in this capacity and giving blood is one more way to help those we serve.



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