American Red Cross issues emergency call for blood donors

The Amer­i­can Red Cross national blood sup­ply has reached emer­gency lev­els with 50,000 fewer dona­tions than expected over the last month across the coun­try. This short­fall leaves the Red Cross with half the read­ily avail­able blood prod­ucts on hand now than this time last year.

The Red Cross is call­ing on all who may be eli­gi­ble to roll up a sleeve and give as soon as pos­si­ble. All blood types are needed nation­ally and locally in Cen­tral Ohio, but espe­cially O pos­i­tive, O neg­a­tive, B neg­a­tive and A neg­a­tive in order to meet patient needs this summer.

Con­tribut­ing fac­tors to the drop in blood dona­tions include the extreme heat which has kept many at home, as well as a series of severe storms result­ing in extended power out­ages which forced the can­cel­la­tion of dozens of blood dri­ves ear­lier in the month.

“We are see­ing many blood dri­ves with very few peo­ple com­ing to give, and with the heat, we under­stand why they may want to stay in,” said Tracey Wil­son, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of Delaware County Red Cross. “Blood dri­ves are always tem­per­a­ture con­trolled, so you know you can stay cool while help­ing save lives.”

The Cen­tral Ohio Red Cross sup­ports patients at 42 area hos­pi­tals, and has an aver­age daily need of 800 units of blood. If at least two addi­tional donors give at each blood drive through the end of July – above what the Amer­i­can Red Cross already expects to col­lect – the blood sup­ply would be suf­fi­cient to meet patient needs.

The need for blood is con­stant. Every two sec­onds, some­one in the United States needs a blood trans­fu­sion. Blood and platelets are needed for many dif­fer­ent rea­sons, includ­ing acci­dent and burn vic­tims, heart surgery patients, organ trans­plant patients, pre­ma­ture babies – when there are com­pli­ca­tions dur­ing child­birth – and for patients receiv­ing treat­ment for leukemia, can­cer or sickle cell disease.

To find a blood drive oppor­tu­nity con­ve­nient for you, call 1–800-RED CROSS, or visit < redcrossblood.org >.

Locally, you may donate blood on Sat­ur­day, July 28, at St. John Neu­mann Church, 9633 Ohio 37, Sun­bury, between the hours of 7 a.m. and 12 noon.

How to Donate Blood

To sched­ule an appoint­ment to donate please call 1–800-RED CROSS (1–800-733‑2767) or visit < redcrossblood.org > for more infor­ma­tion. If you are at least 17 years of age (16 with parental con­sent in some states), meet height and weight require­ments (at least 110 pounds based on height) and are in good gen­eral health, you may be eli­gi­ble to donate blood. Please bring your Red Cross blood donor card or other form of pos­i­tive ID when you come to donate.

About the Amer­i­can Red Cross

The Cen­tral Ohio Blood Ser­vices Region serves 27 coun­ties, and needs 800 blood donors each day to meet patient needs in 42 hos­pi­tals. The Amer­i­can Red Cross shel­ters, feeds and pro­vides emo­tional sup­port to vic­tims of dis­as­ters; sup­plies more than 40 per­cent of the nation’s blood; teaches skills that save lives; pro­vides inter­na­tional human­i­tar­ian aid; and sup­ports mil­i­tary mem­bers and their families.

The Red Cross is a not-for-profit orga­ni­za­tion that depends on vol­un­teers and the gen­eros­ity of the Amer­i­can pub­lic to per­form its mission.

For more infor­ma­tion, please visit < redcross.org >.

Posted by Gary Henery on Jul 25 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.