After Giving 70 Gallons, He’s Model For Sign, Ads
Jo Ann Zuniga, The Houston Chronicle
J.W. Vickery wasn’t looking for publicity.
But if having his face plastered on a freeway billboard and featured in eight national magazines will get him what he wants, that’s fine with him.
Vickery, a Harris County sheriff’s deputy, is one of those prized people for whom the Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center reserves titles such as “serial donor” and “best donor.”
And what he wants is for a lot of other folks to go and donate likewise.
Since he began donating in 1981, Vickery has given a total of 70 gallons in blood and components such as plasma and platelets.
In hopes that others will follow his example, Schepps Dairy is featuring Vickery, a 20-year Sheriff’s Department veteran, on a billboard along the Gulf Freeway just north of Loop 610 South.
Full-page ads with Vickery also are appearing in the December holiday issues of Traditional Home, Food and Wine and other magazines.
Vickery, whose blood type is B-negative, also organizes blood drives that bring in hundreds of donors. His recruits include his wife, Diane Vickery, also a sheriff’s deputy, and state District Judge Brent Gamble, in whose court he works.
Gamble, who has donated 3 gallons so far, is a universal donor - one whose O-negative type means his blood can be given to people with any blood type.
Recruiting others was Vickery’s main reason for agreeing to have his photos splashed around, he said.
“If more people became regular donors, even just four times a year, more could live and less surgeries would be shut down for lack of blood,” he said.
Even though he already was a faithful donor, he committed himself to giving twice a week after he donated platelets in 1985 for a family friend’s 5-year-old son, who had leukemia.
Vickery recalled the impact of seeing the boy in the hospital, hooked up to medical equipment.
“Here we all are complaining about car payments or not getting a raise, which are little things, and there was this little boy fighting for his life,” he said.
Since then, he said, the twice-weekly stops at a blood center have been part of his routine before starting his regular morning work shift.
Whole blood can be donated only every eight weeks, but components such as red cells, platelets and plasma can be taken more frequently because the blood is pumped back into the donor.
Vickery estimates that the 70 gallons he has donated has helped more than 1,000 children at Texas Children’s Hospital, where he targets his donations. He keeps heartfelt letters of thanks from families of those who benefited.
“The platelets are for children with leukemia, and the plasma is for burn patients,” he said.
He can have both arms hooked up at the same time to make the process faster, but it still takes more than an hour for platelets and plasma.
“A tiny pinch and it’s over with,” he said of the needlework.
Vickery passes the time watching a movie on television while donating.
“The blood center employees are seasoned, and they keep an eye on you,” he said. “They’ll even give you a scratch if you have an itch on your face that you can’t reach.”
Vickery has even proselytized to captive audiences: jurors in his court who ask about his rows of blood center coffee mugs.
After each donated gallon, the center presents him with a white milestone cup printed with the total number of gallons in red.
Vickery uses his first 12 cups for the jurors, but saves the cup etched with 70 in gold for himself.
Blood center spokeswoman Robin Davidson said that, with his enthusiasm and dedication, the deputy is well on his way to becoming a revered 100-gallon donor.
She said the nation is facing a blood shortage, perhaps partly because many people who donated after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were disappointed to learn that not all of the blood could be used because of storage and expiration problems.
“Houston used all of the blood donated here; it was not discarded,” Davidson said. “Every drop is very precious, especially with the holidays upon us.”
Since the attacks, blood banks, including the American Red Cross, have formed a task force that will convene should a natural disaster or terrorism strike. The task force will determine how much, if any, blood is needed and control collections so they do not exceed actual need.