- The American Red Cross is looking for more blood donors to help them with an emergency blood shortage.
- Leaders there say they are seeing the lowest number of people giving blood in the last 20 years.
- Watch the video to see why one local donor keeps coming back time after time.
It’s national blood donor month and the American Red Cross needs your help now more than ever.
They are experiencing a severe blood shortage and are hoping you can help them continue to save lives.
“You never know when you might need the blood yourself," donor Katie Donnelly said.
Donating blood is a habit Donnelly makes sure she maintains.
"Every eight weeks or so I put it on the calendar and when I go home this afternoon, I'll put it back on the calendar for next time," she said.
It all started with a blood drive when she was in college. And now the o positive donor been able to help quite a few people.
"Think I'm a 20-gallon donor. I've been doing this for a long long time," she said.
Katie is just one of the many faces who help the American Red Cross with their mission.
And although they are always looking for blood donors the need right now is severe.
"Right now we are in a critical critically low supply," said Scot Dinsmor with the American Red Cross said.
That’s because the American Red Cross says they are seeing the lowest number of people giving blood in the last 20 years.
"We've actually seen about a 40% drop off in our donors. And in 2003 we had 3.7 million donors nationally. And 2023 we had 2.1," Dinsmor.
Dinsmor says there are specific reasons for this like of course the pandemic. And for us in Michigan things like the recent weather.
"We've had about a dozen blood drives canceled because of the weather. What does that result in? Little over 350 units lost. So those are units that patients are waiting for," Dinsmor said.
But over the last couple of months, nationwide they’ve seen a complete drop-off.
"Between the holidays of Christmas and New Year's, we saw about a 7,000 unit drop off, which we need to make up essentially over the coming weeks," Dinsmor.
Scot says they need to average about an extra 8,000 units a week.
"What a lot of folks don't know is nationally every single day we need to collect about 12,500 units to ensure that we're fulfilling the hospital orders the hospital needs and the patient needs," Dinsmor said. "Patients with cancer who need transfusions weekly. Additionally, you've got patients with sickle cell who also need those weekly transfusions.”
The American Red Cross is hoping more people will answer its emergency call and help them continue to save lives.
And if you can’t donate blood you can also help by hosting a blood drive or volunteering at one.
For more information, click here.
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