The Facts About Blood Donation

David Carr, MT(ASCP), Laboratory Director

Every two seconds someone in the United States needs blood. In a given year, there are approximately 14 million blood transfusions in the US. To keep up with this demand, more than 38,000 blood donations are needed on a daily basis. One out of every ten people admitted to a hospital will require a blood transfusion, and on average they will need to receive at least three pints of blood. The most common need for blood transfusions in the US comes from sickle cell patients (80,000 in the US) who require frequent transfusion, cancer patients (1 million new cases each year) who often need blood on a daily basis during chemotherapy, and car accident victims who can use up to 100 units of blood.

Currently there are 15 million blood donations collected annually coming from 8 million donors. The rate of blood being transfused to patients is increasing at the rate of 6% per year. The demand for blood transfusions is growing faster than the number of blood donations. Blood cannot be manufactured and can only come from donors, and less than 38% of the population is eligible to donate blood.

Each blood donation made has the potential to save 3 lives. One unit of whole blood that is donated can be divided into one unit of red cells, one unit of plasma, and one unit of platelets. If you began donating at the age of 17 and donated every 56 days until you reached the age of 76, you would have donated 48 gallons of blood and potentially helped save over 1,000 lives.

The winter holidays are always a particularly hard time of year for blood donor centers. Fewer people donate during the holidays bringing the state’s blood supply down to critical levels. If you have never donated or haven’t donated in a while, now is a perfect time to start. With the holidays approaching our state’s blood level will start to decrease and our state and community will need your help to maintain adequate blood levels.

If you would like to donate blood, you can do so at a local blood donor center or at a local blood drive. For more information about local blood drives times and locations, you can call the American Red Cross at 1-800-GIVELIFE or visit peedee.redcross.org on the web.