LOCAL
A3 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAy, JANuARy 9, 2019
Local blood donations can
save lives around the country
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
Red Cross announces blood drives
L
ives
were
being
saved at the Hermis-
ton Public Library on
Monday.
While patrons browsed
through books on the main
floor, people were trickling
into a city-sponsored Red
Cross blood drive.
Karis Miller, one of sev-
eral phlebotomists on site,
said Red Cross employ-
ees in the Tri-Cities area
spend their days traveling
to churches, athletic clubs,
libraries, hospitals, schools
and other places willing to
host a drive.
High schools and uni-
versities are one of the most
popular donor sites. Accord-
ing to the Red Cross, 31 per-
cent of donors last year were
ages 16 to 24.
On the other end of the
spectrum are many retired
donors who have been
donating regularly for years.
“The older donors who
donate all the time are start-
ing to pass away and the
next generation isn’t step-
ping up,” Miller said.
After the blood is col-
lected, it is sent to a process-
ing center in Portland where
it is tested for diseases, such
as hepatitis, and separated
out into three components:
red blood cells, plasma and
platelets. The components
are then packaged and sent
to hospitals, which have
a contract with the Red
Cross for a certain amount
In the coming weeks, the Ameri-
can Red Cross will hold several blood
drives in the area
The need for blood is constant,
especially during the cold winter
months. Each day, blood donors help
patients of all ages — from accident
and burn victims to heart surgery and
organ transplant patients.
Upcoming blood drives in Hermis-
ton, unless otherwise noted:
•Monday, Jan 14 from 10:15 a.m.
to 3:15 p.m. at New Hope Community
Church, 1350 S. Highway 395.
of blood per month in addi-
tion to extra supplies during
a crisis. Red blood cells can
be stored for up to 42 days,
platelets are stored for up to
five days and plasma can be
frozen and saved for up to a
year.
Usually blood processed
at the Portland center will
stay nearby, but if there is
a surplus or a greater need
somewhere else in the coun-
try, a donation in Oregon
could end up in a patient in
North Carolina.
If a hospital in Eastern
Oregon needs more blood
urgently they don’t have to
wait for it to be brought all
the way from Portland.
David Rodriguez, a vol-
unteer working at the blood
drive Monday, is one of the
volunteers on call 24 hours
a day to transport blood.
When Good Shepherd Med-
ical Center has an unex-
•Friday, Jan 18 from 11 a.m. to
4 p.m. at city of Umatilla, 700 Sixth
St., Umatilla.
•Monday, Jan. 21 from noon to
6 p.m. at Good Shepherd Medical
Center, 610 N.W. 11th St.
•Friday, Feb. 1 from 11 a.m. to
3:30 p.m. at Stafford Hansell Gov-
ernment Center, 915 S.E. Columbia
Drive.
While walk-ins are welcome,
donors are encouraged to schedule an
appointment by calling 1-800-733-
2767 or via www.redcrossblood.org.
pected number of patients
coming into the emergency
room in need of blood, for
example, he might get a call
that he needs to pick some up
from Kadlec Regional Med-
ical Center in Richland and
bring it down to Hermiston.
On Monday Rodriguez
was doing everything from
checking people in to bring-
ing snacks to a first-time
donor who was feeling too
faint to get up from the cot.
“I’m a people person, and
I enjoy getting to go out and
meet new people and help
these folks,” he said.
He said before he started
volunteering for the Red
Cross six and a half years
ago he was a blood donor.
He felt especially grateful
for the opportunity to donate
after his father had emer-
gency surgery and needed
seven pints of blood (donors
give a pint at a time).
“It’s just always import-
ant,” he said. “People don’t
look at it that way, but it
could be your own family
member or close friend.”
Miller said she finds
many of the Red Cross’s
donors are inspired by some-
one close to them whose life
was saved by donated blood
or plasma.
In addition to its life-sav-
ing potential, Miller said
donating blood a few times
a year also has several
health benefits for the donor,
including increased cardio-
vascular health.
“It’s really good for
your body, especially men,
because they don’t have
menstrual periods and so
they don’t lose that blood,”
she said. “So it’s kind of
like an oil change for them.
It takes the old stuff out and
forces their body to make
new.”
Teen starts new year in remission
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
Laylah Sandoval began
2018 with a cancer diagno-
sis, but she started out 2019
with the disease in the rear-
view mirror.
The Hermiston High
School student, 16, finished
up chemotherapy for osteo-
sarcoma in September, and
her first three-month scan
came back clear in Decem-
ber. The quiet teenager, hair
still close-cropped after los-
ing it all to chemotherapy,
wants those who might face
similarly scary news in the
future to know there is hope.
“It’s hard when you first
hear it and you’re going
through it, but just know that
there are people out there that
care about you and you are
going to get better,” she said.
In the summer of 2017,
she started noticing an occa-
sional pain in one of her
legs. The pain turned more
consistent as the year went
on, and by December she
was limping.
Her parents wondered
about taking her to see a doc-
tor. But she shrugged it off,
convinced it was an injury
that would heal on its own.
Just
before
Christ-
mas, however, she was
four-wheeling with her
cousins and injured the same
leg that had been bothering
her for months. Her mother
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Laylah Sandoval, 16, spent
2018 successfully battling
with cancer. The Hermiston
teen now has a new lease
on life having finished up
her treatment in September
cancer free.
took her to an urgent care
clinic, where a doctor noted
her leg was swollen and hot
to the touch. They referred
her to Good Shepherd Med-
ical Center for an X-ray, and
later in the day someone
from Good Shepherd called
and said she needed to come
back in immediately.
Sandoval went back with
her mother, Marisa Rodri-
guez, and they heard news
no one wants to hear: There
appeared to be a tumor in a
bone in her leg, and there
was a good chance it was
malignant.
“Of course that’s scary,”
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Rodriguez said. “I don’t
have any words to explain it.
It felt like I couldn’t breathe.
You take that moment to
cry, but then as a mother
you obviously have to say,
‘What can I do to fix it?’”
Sandoval said although it
took a couple of weeks to get
a biopsy and an official diag-
nosis, she had a gut feeling it
was cancer the moment she
heard she had a tumor.
“I was scared, but really
I was more shocked,” she
said.
The next nine months
Sandoval went through
three types of chemotherapy
and a surgery to remove the
tumor once it had shrunk.
She rotated three weeks at a
time in Hermiston, then two
weeks at Doernbecher Chil-
dren’s Hospital in Portland.
The chemo made her too
tired to do much but sleep
during her Portland stays.
She missed one semester
of school and felt too sick
to manage more than two
meals a day. Her hair all fell
out — something her mom
said was hard to take on top
of everything else.
Rodriguez, along with
Sandoval’s father Adrian
Sandoval, brother Isaiah, 15,
and various extended fam-
ily members, kept her com-
pany and brought her food
when she felt a rare craving
for something.
“They would try to make
me laugh, and help me not
think about it,” she said.
Support from her fam-
ily helped her, she said. The
experience forever deep-
ened her relationship with
them and helped her under-
stand that she has people in
her life who will always be
there for her no matter what.
Her family, in return,
were strengthened by other
things, from their faith to
supportive employers who
let them take time off. .
In September, Sandoval
finally got to ring a special
bell at Doernbecher that cel-
ebrates the end of treatment.
A couple of weeks later,
when she was feeling stron-
ger, she had a small party
with friends and family to
celebrate remission.
Both Rodriguez and San-
doval said they want to help
spread awareness of cancer,
particularly common child-
hood cancers such as osteo-
sarcoma, in the future.
“You see a lot of breast
cancer awareness, but not
children’s cancer aware-
ness,” Rodriguez said.
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Brandi McDonough gazes at her newborn daughter, Mila.
The baby came into the world at 9:56 a.m. on New Year’s
Day as her father watched remotely from Iraq.
Technology links
father, mother,
baby daughter
baby of the year in Herm-
iston, born at Good Shep-
herd Medical Center.
Preslee Hope Barnes was
When Umatilla Coun-
born to Audrey Guen-
ty’s first baby breathed her ther and Bobby Barnes at
first breath on New Year’s 1:47 p.m., and weighed
seven pounds, five ounces.
Day at St. Anthony Hos-
Preslee is the first child
pital, her father watched
for the couple, and was
from thousands of miles
born 10 days late. Her
away at his base in Iraq.
parents said they went
Mila Marie
through about 20 different
McDonough came into
names before settling on
the world at 9:56 a.m.,
the one they both loved.
weighing six pounds,
“I heard the name on
four ounces. Her mom,
the radio, there was a pro-
Brandi McDonough, held
gram where someone said
her daughter in her arms
that name,” Barnes said.
as Ryan McDonough
“I suggested it to Audrey,
watched from Brandi’s
and she
iPhone
liked it right
screen.
“I’ve wanted to be away.”
This is
The cou-
the first
a parent as long
ple said
baby for
as I can remember, they were
the Herm-
iston cou-
and I’ve always hopeful
ple. Brandi
Preslee
known I was going that
learned she
would
to have a girl”
was preg-
arrive on
nant a week
her due
Bobby Barnes, new parent
date, but are
before Ryan
now excited
deployed.
to have a
Ryan is
New Year’s baby.
with the Navy Seabees,
“It’s kind of rare to be
the military’s elite con-
struction unit. He was
able to say that,” he said.
working when he got the
“I’m liking it.”
word his wife had gone
Both said they are look-
ing forward to everything
into labor just after mid-
night and had headed to
about parenthood.
the hospital about 4 a.m.
“I’ve wanted to be
He retired to his room at
a parent as long as I
the base and launched a
can remember, and I’ve
always known I was going
FaceTime session with
to have a girl — same with
Brandi. Part of the time,
he used up nervous energy Audrey,” Barnes said.
The couple was also
by folding laundry or say-
ing comforting words to
presented with a gift from
his wife. Neither knew
Good Shepherd, a large
whether the baby was a
basket which included
boy or girl.
clothes, blankets, books,
“We didn’t know the
and baby supplies.
gender,” Brandi said.
“We wanted to find out
together.”
Ryan will get to hold
his baby girl in March
or April when he arrives
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The Morrow County FFA Auction Committee
would like to sincerely thank the following businesses and
individuals who contributed to the first annual county dinner
and auction. We’ve raised over $60,000 for our agricultural youth!
3D Idaho Pro
Blown Away Ranch
M&M Potato
Umatilla Electric Co.
Roger’s Toyota
Solid as a Rock
Anna Browne
Pendleton Rup Assoc.
BiMart- Hermiston
Wes & Mary Killion
A-Plus Connectors
NW Metal Fabricators
Barenbrug USA
5M Custom Farming
Probert Ranch
Torrie Griggs
Farm Credit Services
Strebin Farms
Sam Bates
Blue Mt. Rentals
Solesco
Bank of Eastern Oregon
Swire Coca-Cola
RDO-Hermiston
Rabo AgriFinance
TriCities Dust Devils
Riverfront Lodge & Grill
Les Schwab Tire
NW Farm Supply
Tim & Beth Dickenson
Home Maintenance Center
Bud Rich Potato
Irrigon FFA Chapter
Pendleton Woolen Mills
Tillamook
Threemile Canyon Farms
Pea Ridge Embroidery
Greg & Carma Barron
Bonnie Miller
Krebs Ranches
DuPont
Wyatt Enterprises
Dupont Pioneer
Jeremiah McElligott
Mt. Valley Land Co.
Beef Northwest
Follett’s Meat Co.
West Winds Nursery
Elmer’s Irrigation
Hermiston Drug
Wes Wise Excavation
Aramark
IRZ Consulting
O’Doherty Outfitters
Sue Wagner
Sage Center
Dwight Osborne
Randy Bernard
Hedges Winery
Devin Robinson
EO Women for Ag
Jim Wilson
Trinity Livestock
Elanco
John Wilson
Lamb Weston
Pono & Harry Von Holt
Wildhorse Resort
Oxarc
Country Animal Hospital
Central Machinery Sales
Deacon & Erin Heideman
Community Counseling Solutions
Boardman Main Street Laundry
Neighbor Dudes Tap House
Mike’s Mobile Slaughter
Eastern Oregon Mobile Slaughter
Boardman Family Foods
Mt. Valley Land Company
Columbia River Powder Co., LLC
Dead Dog Custom Calls
Jim & Karen Lunders
NW Mixer/Ag Equipment