Anchorage Daily News

WASILLA -- Ed Lamm entered the record books in silence, his head momentarily turned away from the sharp metal point entering his right arm.

See, that's the thing.

The guy with more blood donations than any other Alaskan doesn't really care for needles.

Just after 8:15 a.m. Thursday, Lamm made his 300th blood platelet donation to the Blood Bank of Alaska, far and away the highest number of lifetime donations in the state.

That's about 89 gallons of blood, for anybody keeping track.

"Boy, I sure hope this doesn't hurt," technician Cynthia Watts half-joked as she slid the needle in. A few reporters and a few more Blood Bank officials looked on.

No comment.

Watts bent down and asked Lamm quietly, just to make sure.

"No, it doesn't hurt," he said, smiling.

The two see each other pretty often.

Lamm visits the Mat-Su branch of the blood bank every two weeks.

"You need to give back to the community," he explained, from the chair. "It's one way you can do that. Doesn't cost anything."

Lamm looked much younger than his 64 years, a tall, trim fellow wearing a clean blue oxford shirt, worn black jeans, well-used Skechers trail shoes and a new haircut for Thursday's big event.

He retired about 10 years ago as a civil aircraft maintenance superintendent at Elmendorf Air Force Base and moved from Anchorage to what he jokingly called the "family compound" off Fairview Loop Road in December 2006.

Lamm began donating whole blood in the early 1970s after a coworker headed to the blood bank asked him to come along. He switched to platelet donations eight years ago after seeing some people sitting in chairs, giving blood and watching movies.

Platelets are cells in blood that cause clotting. They're given to cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy -- which depletes platelets -- or patients with clotting disorders, said officials of the Blood Bank of Alaska.

Thursday morning, Watts hooked Lamm up to a machine fitted with tubes leading in and out of a centrifuge. In a process called apheresis, the centrifuge spins the blood to separate out blood cells, platelets and plasma. Lamm's platelets were to be stored away -- and constantly jiggled to make sure they don't start to clot -- but the blood cells and plasma were pumped back into his veins.

Fewer people donate platelets because it takes longer than whole-blood donations, Williams said.

Someone can donate platelets 24 times a year; whole blood donors only six times a year.

So someone who donates platelets can really rack up the donations if they're serious about it.

The donor with the next highest record is Bob Traut, with 240 visits. Ken Peaveyhouse got to 246 before he died last year, said Jeremy Ferreira, the Mat-Su blood bank manager.

Plenty of donors don't love needles. Williams himself confesses to being "somewhat needle-phobic."

"Our donors, they just kind of get over the fact," Ferreira said. "They may be afraid of needles, but what they're doing helps a lot more than they are afraid of needles."

In honor of his 300th donation, the Mat-Su branch threw Lamm a party and gave him a framed certificate. He'll also be honored at a Blood Bank of Alaska event in June.

What now?

"I think it probably would be 100 gallons," he said. "Because it seems like that's the next thing on the horizon."

Find Zaz Hollander online at adn.com/contact/zhollander or call 352-6711.

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