Ronald Sprehe, 59, of Amherst, and Tonawanda residents Michael Foley, 58, and Norm Kirisits, 69, are all patients undergoing post-transplant rehabilitation at the North Tonawanda hospital, and jointed officials with Upstate New York Transplant Services on Thursday, where a permanent blood donation center has been located for the past three years.
“We were there really to thank the people who came in, not only for their donation but because the blood they donate goes to people in the area — people they might know,” Sprehe said.
He needed about 10 units of blood between the surgery and post-surgical transfusions related to his transplant in July, he said.
Regarding the need for donations, the statistics are many and urgent: like the fact that 100 people need donated blood each day in Western New York — nationally one person every two seconds — and that just one pint can save three lives, said UNYTS spokeswoman Thea Tio.
Transplant recipients like Sprehe, Foley and Kirisits rely on its availability.
All of the blood UNYTS collects is used locally, she said, since the organ and tissue donation center UNYTS expanded its services to include blood donations.
“We did wonderful today. I think we may have had 50 (donors),” Mary Brown, director of quality and patient safety at DeGraff, said.
She said all three transplant recipients will be on hand as spokesmen for future drives.
“It’s extremely rare,” she said of all three mens’ proximity to one another and the fact that each is making similar progress.
“in fact we have never had three heart transplant patients all at once,” she said. “They have such a special bond with each other and all doing well.”
Sprehe, who got his new heart at the Cleveland Clinic in July said he met his comrades during rehabilitation at DeGraff, and that the support each offers the next has made recovery easier.
Sprehe said he never abused his heart, but suffered a heart attack. A subsequent bypass surgery created complications, and he was fitted with an artificial heart for months before receiving his donation.
He, along with Foley and Kirisits, hope one day to meet the families of their donors, something that Tio said some recipients look forward to and opt not to do.
“For me it would be to say thank you personally,” Sprehe, a father of three whose wife is a nurse, said. “It really was a gift of life. It’s not going to be wasted.”
The fixed blood donation center at DeGraff is open Monday and Tuesday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., as well as on the second and fourth Thursday of each month. It is open the fist and third Saturday of each month from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. or by appointment by calling 512- 7940.
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