Seth Keller Continues Generational Tradition to Give the Gift of Life
Like clockwork, every two weeks, two men in their late 20s come to the Neighborhood Donor Center in Fort Mitchell to give platelets. They just so happen to be twin brothers.
Seth Keller and his brother Aiden Keller have been donating blood since they were 16-years-old. Their father and grandfather are lifelong donors too.
It’s been generation after generation of you turn 16, you start donating blood.
Seth Keller Hoxworth Blood Center Donor
They are both graduates from Cooper High School in Burlington, Kentucky. Now at age 27, Seth celebrates his 100th donation!
“It feels good knowing that I’m so young and giving back to the community is one of those things I enjoy.”
Seth says his uncle died as a kid in the 1950s and that’s what started the family tradition of donating blood. Now he says one of his close friends is battling leukemia. A blood cancer that often requires transfusions.
On the day of his 100th donation, Seth learned he was an HLA (Human Leukocyte Antigen) match for a patient receiving his platelets. Dr. Caroline Alquist with the Hoxworth Blood Center explains what that means.
“Patients that receive repeated transfusions such as Leukemia or Lymphoma survivors, their immune system learns to remove the blood as soon as we transfuse it, which is a really big problem with platelets,” Dr. Alquist continues, “You can start to bleed out of your gums, your gut, or your urinary tract system. The only way we can trick their immune system to keep those platelets in circulation is to HLA match them.”
These types of donations are escorted from the donor center, to the lab to be tested and then straight to a local hospital to the recipient within 24-48 hours.
The staff at the Fort Mitchell Neighborhood Donor Center say the Keller brothers are ideal donors for platelets because they can count on them to routinely give these precious, life saving blood cells. Unlike whole blood which can be stored up to 35 days.
Like red cells, a platelet donation is an automated procedure in which a machine collects platelets while returning the red cells and most of the plasma back to the donor.
Individuals who meet the requirements to donate whole blood can usually donate platelets, but in order to ensure safety, we must verify the platelet count of the donor.
Hoxworth honors these selfless heroes who embody the mission of saving lives close to home. By continuing to make donating blood their #HoxworthHabit, they enable us to impact the lives of those most in need here in Greater Cincinnati.