The month of February has been challenging for USA, especially when snow storm Nemo whopped the Northeast and left streets with knee-deep snow. But the calamity proved to be harder for the American Red Cross, they were forced to cancel 11,500 total blood and platelet donations.

This is why the American Red Cross and other blood bank centers are urging local residents to invest time to donate blood because the country is having a significant shortfall of blood collections.

In the Midwest, almost 150 Red Cross blood drives were canceled in 13 states. Donors were expected to donate more than 4,400 units of platelets and blood while more than 6,900 blood and platelet donations were called off in the Northeast at more than 150 blood drives.

Eligible donors are urged to make a donation and be someone’s hero, but donors with Types O-, O+, A- and B- are the ones in demand. People with Type O- blood are the universal donors so their blood can be given to any blood type. There is a great need for enough supplies of O negative in hospitals because it’s often used in emergency situations when there’s no time to determine the patient’s blood type.

The need for blood is constant but because of natural calamities like typhoons and snow storms, blood drives are canceled. When blood drives are canceled (lately in the  hundreds),  blood shortages is bound to happen across the country. Blood shortage means the lives of people compromised since they depend on blood transfusions.

The flu season is one of the reasons why there’s a threat for blood shortage, there were a lot of donors who weren’t able to give blood because of it.

Many people still don’t grasp the importance of blood donations because they haven’t experienced the need for a blood transfusion in their life. Consider anyone lucky if this were the case, statistics shows that in every two seconds, someone in the US needs blood. That someone may be a car accident victim, a cancer patient, or a mother giving birth or be in a worse case of losing blood. Having enough blood supplies at hospitals give those faceless people another day to live. Wouldn’t you want to be one of the heroes they need?

Blood shortages are the scene we are trying to prevent across the nation, so if you are eligible enough to give blood, please schedule an appointment and lend an arm! Time is ticking, I hope you put blood donation in your top to-do list before another calamity strikes yet again.

Related posts: