As soon as he was accepted, he began an aggressive donation campaign, which now averages about two visits per month. Beam is actually a platelet donor rather than a whole-blood donor. Each time he donates, needles are placed in both of his arms to connect him to a pheresis machine, which centrifuges platelets from his blood and collects them in pouches. The process takes about two hours. His platelets are later matched with recipients whose platelet counts are low.
Low platelets can cause internal bleeding or other problems.
Beam's high range of platelets allows him to donate enough for two recipients at a time. Beam has never experienced an adverse reaction or a seizure since he started giving blood in 1991. Since retiring from ITT as a program systems analyst, he has plenty of time to volunteer. Just because I have epilepsy doesn't mean I am not healthy. A local television station doing a story on blood donation introduced Beam to a toddler who was saved by Beam's donation.