Member keeps lifesaving blood flowing

PLATELETS TO SPARE — PEF member Chuck Vohwinkel donates blood platelets to the Buffalo Red Cross in March. 
— Photo by J. Caroline Esposito

PEF member Chuck Vohwinkel is the kind of guy who would give you the shirt off his back. In fact, he’ll give you his life’s blood.

The PEF Region 1 member has donated nearly 30 gallons of blood to the American Red Cross. 

“I feel great knowing I am helping to save lives” Vohwinkel said.

He began to donate in 1992, after hearing on the nightly news that the station was searching for a bone marrow match for a newscaster suffering from leukemia. Vohwinkel went to his local Red Cross to find out if his marrow matched. It didn’t, but since he was there, he decided to donate blood. 

That’s when he learned about the apheresis program, which takes donations of certain blood components such as platelets, plasma, red cells, white cells, or a combination of these. A single apheresis donation of platelets can provide as many platelets as five whole-blood donations. Vohwinkel donates his platelets. 

“They use my platelets for leukemia patients, burn victims, and open-heart surgery,” he said. 
Because apheresis donors, such as Vohwinkel, donate only a component of their blood, they can donate more often than whole blood donors.

When his employer, the state Department of Transportation (DOT), recently tried to limit release time for its employees to donate blood, Vohwinkel turned to PEF field reps Bruce Smith and Art Munson. 

Thanks to an improper practice charge PEF filed against DOT, the lifeline Vohwinkel and other PEF apheresis donors at DOT provide will continue to flow.

The settlement releases current apheresis donors eight times annually. Whole-blood donors get released four times.

For more information about blood donations and the apheresis program, go to www.givelife.org or call 1-800-GIVE LIFE. 
— Rachel Cahill

Communicator Homepage April 04

Inside This Issue
Features
Contract rally sizzles
Rally activists speak their minds
PEF weighing its options
Keep Fulton Corrections open
Camp McGregor’s fate depends...
Lawmakers save Middletown Psych
PEF helps elect Fields to office
Changing the world, one cow at a time

Departments
President's Message
Member's Mailbag
Nurses' Station
Retirees In Action
Members' Highlights
Back Cover Ad
PEF Membership Benefits &Travel

Union Matters
Union halts layoffs at OCF
Judge backs nurses right to back pay
Member keeps lifesaving blood flowing
Deadline nears for OT meal allowance
PEF sending first heroes into national...
Labor community helps state workers
Grant walks the walk
Reg. 1 member running to retire
Candidates sought for E. Board
Join PEF Hispanic Committee at Somos
2004 Convention Delegate Info

Save these dates:
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Somos El Futuro!
The annual weekend conference in Albany of the Caucus of NYS Hispanic and Puerto Rican Legislators
For more information, to volunteer, or make reservations for the reception, call Helen Brooks at the PEF Legislative Office, 1-800-724-4997.

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