{"id":136173,"date":"2024-10-10T23:31:22","date_gmt":"2024-10-11T03:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=136173"},"modified":"2024-10-10T23:32:26","modified_gmt":"2024-10-11T03:32:26","slug":"blood-donor-becomes-recipient-and-ever-so-grateful-for-kindness-of-others-like-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=136173","title":{"rendered":"Blood Donor Becomes Recipient and Ever So Grateful for Kindness of Others Like Him"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photo caption: George Patchen and his wife, Tracy.<\/em><\/p>\n

When George Patchen of Washington Township, Northampton County, became a regular blood donor, he never thought his kindness toward others would come full circle. However, in April, after Patchen, 65, had surgery on his prostate at St. Luke\u2019s Hospital\u2019s Anderson Campus, he needed a blood transfusion to ensure his recovery.<\/p>\n

Bloodwork had shown his red blood count was low, so Patchen was given two units of blood.<\/p>\n

Patchen remained in the hospital longer than he anticipated because of his need for blood. He stayed three nights rather than just the one he thought he would. But all went well, and Patchen is grateful that he was able to get the blood he needed when he needed it without any problem.<\/p>\n

Patchen said he had donated not only blood but also platelets regularly for a few years prior to his diagnosis of prostate cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was something I could do to help others,\u201d he said. Little did he know that someday soon he was going to be one of who needed the help of other donors like himself.<\/p>\n

Having seen both sides of blood donations, Patchen would encourage people \u201cif they are able to donate blood when they can.\u201d Recipients, he said, are very grateful that blood is available for them in their time of need. And donating, he said, is just a matter of giving a little of your time — and blood.<\/p>\n

St. Luke\u2019s, a founding member of Miller-Keystone over 50 years ago, continues its unwavering commitment as the only local health care network that identifies MKBC as its primary blood supplier. Without St. Lukes steadfast support for MKBC, the Lehigh Valley could run out of the blood necessary to provide lifesaving care for patients, particularly during a regional or national blood shortage or other crisis.<\/p>\n

MKBC has locations in Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton, Reading, the Poconos, Pittston and Ewing, NJ, and holds blood drives at area businesses and other locations.<\/p>\n

About St. Luke\u2019s<\/strong><\/p>\n

Founded in 1872,\u00a0St. Luke\u2019s University Health Network<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network of more than 20,000 employees providing services at 15 campuses and 350+ outpatient sites.\u00a0 With annual net revenue of $3.4 billion, the Network\u2019s service area includes 11 counties in two states: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. St. Luke\u2019s hospitals operate the largest network of trauma centers in Pennsylvania, with the Bethlehem Campus being home to St. Luke\u2019s Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n

Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke\u2019s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania.\u00a0 In partnership with Temple University, the Network established the Lehigh Valley\u2019s first and only four-year medical school campus.\u00a0 It also operates the nation\u2019s oldest School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 52 fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with more than 500 residents and fellows. In 2022, St. Luke\u2019s, a member of the Children\u2019s Hospital Association, opened the Lehigh Valley\u2019s first and only free-standing facility dedicated entirely to kids.<\/p>\n

SLUHN is the only Lehigh Valley-based health care system to earn Medicare\u2019s\u00a0five-star<\/em>\u00a0ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction.\u00a0 It is both a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades\u00a0Top Hospital<\/em>\u00a0and a Newsweek World\u2019s\u00a0Best Hospital<\/em>.\u00a0 The Network\u2019s flagship University Hospital has earned the\u00a0100 Top Major Teaching Hospital<\/em>\u00a0designation from Fortune\/PINC AI 10 years in a row, including in 2023 when it was identified as THE #4 TEACHING HOSPITAL IN THE COUNTRY.\u00a0 In 2021, St. Luke\u2019s was identified as one of the\u00a015 Top Health Systems<\/em>\u00a0nationally.\u00a0 Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the\u00a0Most Wired<\/em>\u00a0award recognizing the breadth of the SLUHN\u2019s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information. \u00a0The Network is also recognized as one of the state\u2019s lowest-cost providers.<\/p>\n

Information provided to TVL by:
\nSam Kennedy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo caption: George Patchen and his wife, Tracy. When George Patchen of Washington Township, Northampton County, became a regular blood donor, he never thought his kindness toward others would come … Continue reading Blood Donor Becomes Recipient and Ever So Grateful for Kindness of Others Like Him<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136174,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-136173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/mkbc.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136173"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=136173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/136174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=136173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=136173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=136173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}