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Christine Latham, right, is thankful for blood donors, like Brenda Ordnung, who was donating blood Wednesday afternoon at the Community Blood Center. Ms. Latham has a rare blood disorder and has had numerous transfusions through out her life.

Bleeding may not be pleasant, but for most people, it’s not a big deal. Not in the case of minor injuries, anyway — not unless the body lacks the ability to make it stop.

But bleeding is a big deal for Chris Latham of Savannah, Mo., who has Glanzmann thrombasthenia, a rare disorder in which her platelets don’t function correctly.

“Basically, my body doesn’t fix itself,” she says. “My blood doesn’t clot.”

Her disorder first manifested itself in all the bruises she had as a child and in a ruptured tonsil that resulted in a more-than-usual amount of bleeding. Doctors in the 1960s simply deemed her a “bleeder,” and she had to live a careful life — sitting on the sidelines during P.E., getting a poodle in place of the horse she couldn’t have.

When she was 16, one of her ovaries ruptured, and this was her closest call — one that left her with literally no blood pressure by the time she was transferred from one hospital to another more equipped to handle the emergency. Two surgeries later, doctors put a name to her condition, but this didn’t do anything to make it easier to live with.

Ms. Latham is thankful to be able live at all, however, and she attributes this feat to the hundreds of units of donated blood that, over the course of her lifetime, have replaced blood she’s lost and put effective platelets into her body.

“I’ve had hundreds of people donate to me — people I know and people I don’t know,” she says. “I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for that.”

But it’s not a given that donated blood will always be readily available — not when blood banks, including Community Blood Center in St. Joseph, often face shortages.

“Right now, we have a one-day supply of O-negative,” says Betty Tinker, the center’s donor recruitment representative. “We usually have a supply of one day or less.”

O-negative blood always is the type most in demand, she adds, because anyone can receive it. But Community Blood Center also is running low on all other blood types and, in order to bulk up its supply, it will host a blood drive from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday at Eagles Lodge, 2004 N. Belt Highway. The blood collected will make a dent in the 580-pints-per-day quota Community Blood Center must meet in order to keep up with the needs of hospitals throughout northwest Missouri and northeast Kansas.

“This is the only place in St. Joseph people can donate and know their blood stays here,” Ms. Tinker says of Community Blood Center. “Our supply goes way down in the summer, and we don’t want people to wait until something bad happens to donate.”

If anyone knows about blood shortages, it’s Ms. Latham’s parents, Dale and Arlene Tritten of Savannah. They know what it’s like to need 100 units of blood, as their daughter did at 16, and for these to have to come from Kansas City and St. Louis. And they know, too, how important it is to try to repay what numerous strangers did for them in saving their daughter’s life.

“We wouldn’t have her if it weren’t for them,” Mr. Tritten says, adding that he regularly donates platelets and has given eight or nine times already this year. “I’ve probably given 100 units, but she’s probably had 300. She’s a tough little girl.”

Of course, Ms. Latham would be glad to never need another blood transfusion. But the odds are against her on this, because even living carefully, she still experiences stomach or gastrointestinal bleeding often enough that dealing with it has become routine.

“I’ve learned to read my body,” she says. “When I get to the top of a flight of steps and my legs hurt, it’s probably not a good sign.”

Then come the lab tests to measure her blood count and, a day or two later, the transfusion. The length of the wait depends upon the availability of the blood type she needs, but despite the fatigue that often sets in when she’s in need of blood, Ms. Latham does her best to maintain her normal routine while she waits.

This means frequent trips to Heartland Regional Medical Center, not as a patient but as an occupational therapist. For all its downsides, having a medical disorder did provide Ms. Latham with direction when it came to choosing a career — and she hopes her story will influence others, as well.

“Growing up like I did, I understood the importance of medical care and interventions,” she says. “Now, I encourage everyone to get blood if they need it and to give it if they can.”

Lifestyles reporter Erin Wisdom can be reached at

ewisdom@npgco.com.