`VAMPIRE' ASKS JUST A LITTLE BIT OF TIME.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY 

``The Vampire'' was busy Wednesday, working the phones at the Red Cross office in Van Nuys, shaking his head as another potential donor said she just doesn't have the time to give blood.

``Please, give me one hour and I'll give somebody 20 years,'' he shoots back, serious as a heart attack.

Click. The phone line goes dead. Theoplas Forsett -- aka the Vampire -- moves on to the next name on his list, hoping for better luck.

``It's sad, but people in Southern California are just too busy, even to help save a life,'' says Forsett, who coordinates blood-platelet donations in the San Fernando Valley to help kids and adults fighting cancer.

It is sad. More than 35 percent of donated blood platelets -- used to stem internal bleeding and clot the blood of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy -- come from out of state because people in Los Angeles are too busy to give the Vampire an hour.

``First I ask them, then I beg them,'' says Forsett, who got the unique nickname from a handful of regular blood donors who frequent the Red Cross' Van Nuys office.

``Every time we see him coming we say, `Oh-oh, here comes the Vampire wanting our blood again,''' says Jay Roberts, laughing as he watches a DVD while donating blood platelets.

The process is called apheresis, a Greek term meaning ``separate.'' Blood is taken from one arm, the platelets are removed, and the blood is put back in the other arm.

It takes about an hour, doesn't hurt, and you can watch a DVD donated by Blockbuster during the process.

Roberts has been driving in from his Santa Clarita home once a month for the past 15 years to donate his platelets after a good friend died of bone cancer.

``I try talking to people about donating their platelets, but either they're too scared or they don't want to take the time,'' he says.

``How can an hour every few weeks or a month be too much time to help save a life?''

The bitter irony to Red Cross officials is that nowhere in the country are blood platelets needed more, but in such shortage right now, than here in Los Angeles.

``People from all over the nation come here to our hospitals for cancer treatment,'' says Lance James, director of blood collection for the Red Cross in Southern California. ``But the platelets they need are often coming from the Midwest and other parts of the country.

``Because of the California lifestyle, we don't have as many local donors.''

The California lifestyle. Not enough time.

There are 22 million people in California, and fewer than 3 percent of them donate platelets.

``It is sad,'' says Barbara Anspaugh of La Crescenta, who has donated more than 300 units of platelets since 1988.

``It doesn't cost me anything but a little time to maybe save a life.

``I tell people they should consider it, but most of the time, to be honest, I don't get anywhere,'' she says.

So, the Vampire works the phones again, looking for blood -- especially A and B positive, which is the most in demand.

All he's asking for is one hour so he can help a sick kid fighting cancer maybe have another 20 years.

How can time be more valuable than that?

dennis.mccarthy(at)dailynews.com

[phone]

For information on platelet donations, call Theoplas Forsett at the Red Cross' Van Nuys office, [phone].

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Photo:

Theoplas Forsett, center, recruits blood-platelet donors like regulars Jasmine Ross-Robinson of Pasadena, left, and Jay Roberts of Santa Clarita, who give at the American Red Cross office in Van Nuys.

Evan Yee/Staff Photographer