Dedicated Garden City Park Platelet Donor

Ken Wurtemberg so very often sits in a chair at a blood center and sticks both his arms in a special machine that extracts blood from one arm and pumps it into the other; an hour and a half process he endures once every two to three weeks.

He doesn’t have to do this, never even needed a blood transfusion himself, but Wurtemberg has been a dedicated platelet donor for over 20 years simply to give back because “people need it.”

Wurtemberg, a Garden City Park resident for 43 years, said “I got good blood” of his A-Positive blood type, which is the sole reason he became a donor all those years ago.

“[I started] 20 years ago with platelets…with whole blood you’re done in 15 minutes or so and it’s just one arm, with platelets you’re in a machine with both arms and it goes out of one arm into a centrifuge and goes back into the other arm minus some of the platelets,” Wurtemberg explained.

This process doesn’t faze Wurtenberg, who said you can watch TV or listen to music while you wait.

“You don’t feel weak or as bad afterwards [as you would after giving whole blood] other than the soreness in your arm,” Wurtemberg said.

Retired now for eight years, the 72-year-old usually goes by himself on Mondays to Long Island Blood Services in Lake Success on Marcus Avenue.

“I know people that I’ve been meeting over the years, but generally I go by myself,” Wurtemberg said. “There are always new people.”

The dedicated donor also used to volunteer at blood drives, much like the one coming up this Friday at the New Hyde Park Fire Department.

“I used to go to blood drives and try to get people to do platelets, back 15 to 18 years ago,” Wurtemberg said. “I would go and when people were sitting and having their coffee and cookies afterwards I would give them a little talk about platelets; I would have a flip chart explaining it and so forth.”

Wurtemberg’s efforts were a success; people did try donating platelets, but he said the process isn’t for everyone.

“It’s a long time sitting in a chair and a lot of people don’t have that time,” he said. “Plus, it can be uncomfortable.”

Having donated whole blood in the past, Wurtemberg only donates his platelets now because, “it’s more important. The platelets that come out of my one donation are like high-test, so if they were taking blood at a blood drive they would maybe need three to four donations to equal the same amount.”    

Wurtemberg is close to 300 platelet donations and said, “It’s like giving money to the church, or spending more time doing volunteer service. This is another way of volunteering; only I’m giving back a little bit of me.”