Longtime worker recalls other busy times in blood bank's history

By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer

Loretta Young Henion a blood bank worker for more than 50 years, has seen blood supplies rise and fall. Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

Loretta Young Henion is still there. Henion now operates the switchboard from 6:15 to 11:15 a.m. at the blood bank's headquarters on Dillingham Boulevard.

"I've quit giving my name on the switchboard," said Henion, 74. "Too many people recognize me and want to talk story."

She recalls times during World War II when she boarded submarines at Pearl Harbor to help take blood from sailors. The blood bank was always a busy place in the war years, she said.

Henion said she only recalls one other time that compares with the number of donors who began flooding into the blood bank on Sept. 11.

That occasion was on Jan. 14, 1969, after a series of explosions ripped apart the flight deck of the Enterprise, America's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. The ship, 70 miles south of Honolulu at the time, lost 27 men, and dozens of crewmen were seriously injured.

Two hours after the call went out for donors in Honolulu, the blood bank's offices were overflowing with people, Henion said.

News accounts from the time indicate the blood bank collected around 1,000 pints that week.

Henion said blood collection techniques have come a long way from the days when nurses pricked the ear lobes of donors and then compared a blood sample with a color chart to see if the donor's hemoglobin contained enough iron.

Henion had no idea she'd stay with the blood bank for so long. But even before she took the job, she remembers asking herself, "What can I do to help?"

"You really never stop asking that question," she said. That, she said, is why she's still there.