A bloodmobile, for assistance to Ukraine from Carter BloodCare, leaves Texas with shipping funded by the Rotary District 6600 Medical Equipment Supplies Abroad program out of Fostoria. It is set to arrive at the medical facility in Ukraine around July 4. Pictured are employees from Carter BloodCare.
Employees from Carter BloodCare wrote messages of love to Ukraine on the bloodmobile.
FOSTORIA — A bloodmobile headed to Ukraine is about ready to roll — and the Rotary District office in Fostoria helped to make it happen.
Scott Salyers, director of operations, Rotary District 6600 manages the Medical Equipment and Supplies Abroad Program which funded the shipping of the vehicle.
“A lot of people die over there because of a loss of blood,” Salyers said. “We estimate that this bloodmobile can help collect a couple hundred units per day.”
The vehicle was donated by Carter BloodCare. It left Northern Texas for the shipping port mid-May and is expected to arrive in Poland by the second week of June. From there it will be driven to Ukraine and arrive at its ultimate medical destination around July 4.
Salyers expects the shipping cost to be approximately $17,000. He’s sure there are going to be unanticipated costs, as well as fuel issues.
“It’s a tangible way to help folks in need,” Carter BloodCare spokesperson James Black said.
He pointed out that the value of the bloodmobile is impossible to calculate in dollars and cents, because it will be the first one in Ukraine. He equates it with potential lives saved.
Both Salyers and Black referred to cultural issues in Ukraine that make this very important during this war. Prior to the bloodmobile, blood was historically collected at local medical facilities in advance of a medical procedure, from the individual who was having the surgery and that person’s family.
Additionally, many medical facilities have been the targets of Russian attacks. The bloodmobile is mobile, which they expect to help with the safety of the collection process.
“Hospitals are being hit with bombs. There’s a lot of dirty stuff going on,” Salyers said.
Black calculated lives saved in potential units of blood. The bloodmobile has three stations for blood donors to give and a donation takes about 15 minutes. That means 12 pints of blood can be donated per hour, or 144 pints in a 12 hour day.
Each unit of whole blood can also be divided up and used in three ways, as the red blood cells, platelets and as plasma.
Salyers said that blood is generally needed. Even if a pint is not used on a war injury, he said the Russians are targeting civilians, in order to draw resources away from the Ukrainian war effort. Whether it is used to help pregnant women, children who are landmine victims or cancer patients, it is still necessary.
Other than time, after the bloodmobile arrives, the limiting factor for the blood collection will be the supplies and storage needed for the blood. He compared it to the supply chain problems that Carter BloodCare dealt with during periods around the COVID-19 pandemic, except that there wasn’t a war for them to also deal with.
“A lot of things that people wouldn’t ordinarily think of, like blood or tourniquets, things that you would otherwise take for granted, are so important for everybody going through this,” Black said.
The need for something like a bloodmobile emerged from the training of six Ukrainian medical staff and Ukrainian government medical officials last October at Carter BloodCare through the Congressional Office for International Leadership and the Open World Program, which it implements.
The Grapevine Rotary Club, Grapevine, Texas, worked with Carter BloodCare on securing the grant for that training.
The Open World Program is a U.S. exchange program for countries of the post-Soviet era which enables the foreign future leaders to meaningfully engage and interact with Members of Congress, Congressional staff, and other Americans.
To donate, visit www.rotarydistrict6600.org.
