Louisiana man with the ‘golden arm’ honored for saving a thousand lives

NEW ORLEANS — Every other Wednesday, you can find Mike Adams sitting in the chair at The Blood Center in Metairie, Louisiana. By his own account, Adams is a quiet, unassuming suit salesman at a local mall. Others at the center call him the “Man with the Golden Arm.”

After decades of donating blood, the 72-year-old reached a milestone in January. Since the 1990s, Adams has donated 400 times, amounting to 50 gallons of blood. There are no records of another donor in the area coming close to Adams’ 50-gallon feat.

Adams remembers as a young boy learning the 12 principles of Boy Scout Law — which he is still quick to recite — and has continued to live by them throughout his life.

READ MORE: How to help amid a national blood shortage

“I think it’s spectacular that we are able to donate to give back to each other,” he told the PBS NewsHour. “We should be ready to sacrifice for each other. When I was a Boy Scout, that’s how we lived our lives. Do a good deed daily.”

Every blood donation can save up to three lives, so the center estimates that Adams has likely helped 1,000 lives by donating lifesaving blood products.

Dr. Tim Peterson, medical director at The Blood Center, said Adams is “one of the superstars of blood donation,” and for anyone to reach a 50-gallon mark is “very, very rare and unusual.” He said Adams has maintained his health by exercising and routinely seeing his physician.

“He knows what it takes to be a donor,” he said.

Adams now jokes he’s been poked more than 400 times, sometimes simultaneously, in both arms. His long history of donations goes back to the 1970s, years before the center began tracking his visits.

Newly over a fear of needles following a surgery in his youth, he remembered coming across a blood donor booth and deciding to give. He hasn’t stopped donating blood products since.

Although he’s been honored as a “golden” donor, Adams said he “never really paid attention to how much I was giving as long as I was saving lives.”

“I’m trying to be a good example for others to walk in their lives and turn and do things good for other people,” he said.

Mike Adams was recently recognized by The Blood Center for donating 50 gallons of blood over a 30-year span. He received the plaque as he arrived to donate for his 400th blood donation, which is a record for a donor in the region. Photo courtesy of The Blood Center.

Adams’ blood donations became personal in the 1990s. His brother Ronnie was diagnosed with leukemia and desperately needed blood products. Up until then, Adams was mainly donating whole blood. But to help a young cancer patient and his brother, Adams started donating via apheresis. The process is a bigger commitment but helps cancer patients who desperately need platelets, tiny blood cells that help form clots and stop bleeding.

For apheresis, Adams spends about 90 minutes for each donation, while a typical whole blood donation takes about 10 minutes. The process takes longer because it involves removing his whole blood, separating the red cells from the platelets and plasma, and returning the blood components not used.

Adams, a donor with A negative blood, is a universal donor for platelets and plasma. Platelet donations allow Adams to give every two weeks; whole blood donors are advised to give every eight.

Regular donors like him are needed because platelets only have a five to seven day shelf life. Adams’ typical donation yields two to three units or pints. The average blood transfusion requires about three units.

Due to COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a severe blood shortage. Before the novel coronavirus emerged, platelet use increased by over 15 percent nationwide while platelet donations were down by 2 percent, according to 2019 figures from the National Blood Collection Utilization Survey (NBCUS).

The American Red Cross estimates that every two seconds, someone in the U.S. needs blood or platelets. Nearly 5,000 units of platelets and 6,500 units of plasma are needed daily for lifesaving care, like cancer treatments and organ transplants.

A nurse prepares a man who is donating blood at a recent drive conducted by The Blood Center. The organization collects about 70 to 80,000 donations of whole blood, platelets, and plasma in a region that serves about 35 hospitals from around New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, and across the Gulf Coast into Mississippi. Photo courtesy of The Blood Center

The Blood Center collects about 70 to 80,000 donations of whole blood, platelets, and plasma in a region serving approximately 35 hospitals from around New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, and across the Gulf Coast into Mississippi. The Blood Center estimates one in 10 people in Southeast Louisiana donate about two times a year, a higher rate than the national average.

“We can’t manufacture blood components. They have to come from volunteer donors who give of their time and their generosity to help someone’s life,” Peterson said.

Ronnie died in 2017, but Adams, now a grandfather of eight, said he kept on giving after learning firsthand how his blood donations extended the lives of his brother and others.

“I feel like I got several more years with him,” Adams said of his brother. “Although he wasn’t 100 percent, we went to church on Sundays, and we just got together pretty much almost every weekend. We knew he had cancer, and we didn’t think this was going away. But, by donating [platelets] to him, I was helping him recover some.”

Peterson said that as recently as “five or 10 years ago, people would have significantly decreased chances of survival or cure. Patients are now being able to be treated that may not have been available before because there wasn’t enough blood and components.”

Across town at Children’s Hospital New Orleans, families of kids with cancer often find themselves searching for blood components and hold blood donation drives.

Lisa Prevost’s 12-year-old granddaughter Emily is one of those who need platelets as she is being treated for leukemia. Since the middle schooler was diagnosed in November, she’s only been home one night.

Emily Basye, 12, has received more than 20 transfusions since November 2022, while recovering from chemotherapy treatments for leukemia. Photo courtesy of Prevost family

Each time she gets the treatment, her platelet count takes a nosedive. Emily’s family estimates she has received more than 20 transfusions requiring platelets. One of the early incidents, which required an eight-day hospital stay, was scary.

“We really thought we were going to lose Emily,” Prevost recalls while pausing to cry.

Sometimes, the blood is not there.

“At one point, she needed to have a procedure done, and the platelets were not at the hospital. They were waiting for platelets. They did not have them. And I started getting very panicked,” Prevost said.

Once the blood supply arrived, Prevost said, you could see the color return to her grandchild’s face.

“As I’m watching the [blood] bag getting platelets and as it flows through those tubes going into her body, I’m watching, and I am thanking God,” an emotional Prevost said. “I don’t know who these people [donating] are, but thank you for saving my granddaughter’s life. I would sit there and shed tears of joy because she had the platelets and the blood that she needed to live.”

No one knows for sure if Adams’ blood platelets were used for Emily’s treatment, but her family is grateful just the same.

Prevost said Adams “is undeniably a hero.” A superhero, even.

“He has not only saved many lives. He has saved many families from losing a loved one,” she said.“I couldn’t even imagine or add up what it would take to get her through this disease and for her to make it through the end, but I have confidence because of people like this man who has given for 30 years.”

As for Adams, he has no plans to stop rolling us his sleeves to donate. Both his son and daughter are regular donors, too. The former Boy Scout is also registered as an organ donor.

“It brings you to tears to know that you’re doing something so wonderful for somebody else,” Adams said. “I don’t ever give it a second thought. Anytime anybody needs it, I’ll be there.”