100-gallon club: Robins man donates blood 800th time

Pete Bischoff put his blood, sweat and tears into reaching a major milestone on Monday. Well, at least his blood.

The 68-year-old Robins resident donated platelets for the 800th time, making him a 100-gallon donor.

Bischoff said he donated for the first time in 1966 when he was in the Army and stationed in Germany.

'They said whoever donates gets a three-day pass and a $25 savings bond,' he said. 'I thought to myself, well who wouldn't do that?'

Since then, he's donated to UnityPoint Health-St. Luke's Hospital, Mercy Medical Center's blood bank, and the Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center Lindale Crossing Donor Center.

He's kept all records of his donations over the years, he said, pulling out a worn donor card that detailed his most recent visits to the blood center. He has so many of those cards, he said, it was hard to estimate the total number.

'It's pretty unusual to hit that milestone,' said Kirby Winn, spokesman for the regional blood center. 'You would have to start at a young age, be consistent over the years and stay healthy to have those kind of gallon totals.'

The blood center supplies blood to 88 hospitals in Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, and Wisconsin. These include Mercy, St. Luke's, the Iowa City VA Health Care System, Mercy Hospital in Iowa City, and the University of Iowa DeGowin Blood Center.

Winn estimated the blood center supplies about 10,000 units to Cedar Rapids hospitals each year.

During a platelet donation, blood is drawn and passed through a machine that separates the cells. The machine collects the platelets and returns the remaining blood components.

A donor can donate whole blood six times a year, but platelets 24 times a year.

'This technology,' Bischoff said. 'It used to take at least three hours. Now that amount is way down — to about an hour. And they only take it out of one arm, not two.'

He said he's learned a good deal about blood donation over the years, even touring the blood center's Davenport headquarters to see how the blood and platelets are processed, tested, and stored. He inherited a decommissioned donor bed from Mercy, he said.

Bischoff grew up in North Dakota. After leaving the Army, he worked many years for Farmstead Foods, formally Wilson & Co., and the City of Cedar Rapids.

He said it was his competitive nature that kept him donating over the years.

'I want to donate more than anyone else,' he said. 'I'm going to keep giving.'