The blood supply for the summer has shifted from bad to worse with the American Red Cross recently announcing an urgent need for donations throughout the country. The contributions of the Red Cross for the current month are lower by 50,000. At that level, only fifty percent of its blood supplies are available for immediate use compared to the same period last year.
In an interview, American Red Cross Blood Services' chief executive Ms. Julia Wulf said that blood cannot be replaced and it cannot be simply ordered from the Internet. Red Cross needs all types of blood are needed particularly the universal blood type which is O negative as well as O positive, A negative and B negative.
Due to the activities for the summer and the upcoming holidays, a lot of the usual donors of blood and the hosts of blood drives are also taking a break even though patients do not get the same break or holiday from the need of blood products.
Somebody in the United States requires a transfusion of blood almost every two seconds.
In a news release, Lisa Winters, Utah Red Cross' donor recruitment manager said that the Red Cross needs to collect over 17,000 pints of blood everyday for patients in at least 3,000 hospitals and blood transfusion centers nationwide. Of the total amount of blood required to be collected daily, Utah's Red Cross must gather about 2,350 pints a day.
Red Cross
Victims of accidents, premature babies and patients of heart surgery, organ transplants as well as those suffering from cancer, leukemia and sickle cell disease need blood.
Winters said that if blood is not available, these patients have to suspend or even give up a crucial procedure and the goal of the Red Cross is to make sure that this does not happen.
