Have a heart: Blood drive raises awareness of heart ailments in kids

Melissa Koinzan and Rene Harrell are out for blood.

About 250 pints, to be precise.

Koinzan and Harrell are among the founding members of Mended Little Hearts of Colorado Springs, a 3-month-old nonprofit that’s working to raise awareness about congenital heart defects in children and support parents of kids born with a CHD. (read more about the organization below.) Because about 50 percent of hospital blood transfusions go to children with congenital heart disease, they say, their group wanted to do something to give back.

Their education coordinator, Mary Berry, came up with the idea for an annual community blood drive, and in a few short months, the group pulled its first one together with cooperation from both Memorial Health System and Penrose-St. Francis Health Services.

The main drive will take place Thursday at five sites (see below for locations and times), with the Air Force Academy hosting one Friday.

“A good day supposedly is 40 units (pints) per location, and that’s what we’re hoping for,” said Koinzan, whose 7-year-old son was born with two of the 35 known types of congenital heart defects.

Penrose-St. Francis spokesman Chris Valentine said the drive is unusual in that Penrose and Memorial rarely participate side-by-side in a blood drive for the same cause. Kathy Hook, blood donor coordinator for Memorial Health System, also said the drive stands out because of how spread outthe sites are.

“It’s unique because it covers the whole city,” said Hook. “We’re trying to get people to come in whether they work on the north side, or live on the south side. We’re just hoping for a good turnout.”

Several other places were interested in hosting a blood drive on Thursday, Koinzan said, but there were only so many mobile blood units to go around. Next year, she said, the group hopes to enlist the help of Bonfils Blood Center in Denver to augment local resources, and schedule a week’s worth of donation events.

For the Memorial Health System and Penrose-St. Francis Heal blood banks, this week’s drive is a way to replenish supplies at a time when donations tend to lag. Winter storms can keep donors away and force the cancellation of mobile blood drives, Hook said, and winter is also when more potential donors are sick.

For Koinzan, Harrell and the other 15 or so families in the local group, the blood drive is a chance to educate the public about CHDs in children and the work that Mended Little Hearts is doing to help other parents in their situation.

Among other activities, the group hosts a support group and assembles care bags with toiletries and snacks for the many families who find out just days, if not hours, after their baby is born that he or she has a heart defect and has to go to Denver for emergency surgery.

“Your baby’s 6 days old, and suddenly you’re running up to Denver with just the clothes on your back,” says Harrell, a mother of five children whose 4-year-old daughter, Nora, was born with multiple CHDs and has had two surgeries.

Congenital heart defects are the most common type of birth defect in the U.S., and nearly twice as many children die from one than from all types of childhood cancers combined, according to Mended Little Hearts. About 36,000 babies are born with a CHD each year ithe U.S. 

WHERE TO DONATE

Thursday:

• Stetson Hills police substation: 4110 Tutt Blvd., 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
• Colorado Springs Dodge: 7455 Austin Bluffs Parkway, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
• Memorial Hospital Central, 1400 E. Boulder St., room 2410, 8 a.m.-4 p.m.
• Memorial Hospital North, 8890 N. Union Blvd., Suite 209, 8 a.m.-4 p.m.
• Penrose-St. Francis Blood Bank, 2222 N. Nevada Ave., 7:30 a.m.-4 p.m.

All locations will take walk-in donors, but the three hospital sites recommend appointments. Call 365-5411 for Memorial appointments or 776-5822 for Penrose appointments.

Friday:
Air Force Academy hospital (Penrose bloodmobile), 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

ABOUT MENDED LITTLE HEARTS
The Colorado Springs program, which is affiliated with the national Mended Little Hearts program (http://mendedlittlehearts.org), hosts a support group of families of children with congenital heart defects from 6-7:30 p.m. the second Thursday of the month. Call Melisssa Koinzan at 649-7226 or e-mail her at ColoradoSpringsCO@mendedlittlehearts.org for location and more information.
On Feb. 12, from 10 a.m.- to 3 p.m., Couture Cupcakes, 3347 Cinema Point, will host a “Frost a Cupcake Cone” fundraiser for Mended Little Hearts. Cost is $5 per person, with all proceeds going to the nonprofit. Information: 229-2613