Red Cross is encouraging blood donations
Airdate: January 10, 2023
January is National Blood Donor Month.
There is a need for blood donation all year round but the winter months – especially after the holidays can be a time when blood donations slow down.
The American Red Cross is enticing would be blood donors with a promotion that could lead to donors winning two tickets to the Super Bowl.
On The Spark Tuesday was Lisa Landis, Communications and Marketing Director for the American Red Cross – Greater Pennsylvania Region, who talked about why it’s important to donate blood now,”This time of year has historically brought some challenges for all blood collection organizations. And in part, it’s because of inclement weather, the storms, winter cold, but also the sickness that we see this time of year with so many folks indoors. And that’s not even speaking of the pandemic implications, an impact that it’s made in the collection of blood. We also have the holidays where we’re just concluding a big celebration. And so when folks are spending time maybe doing shopping and gathering with friends and family, the last thing that’s coming to mind for many is donating blood. And so when you take those factors all together, it creates a bit of a scenario where we typically see a decrease in donor turnout and blood drives that are hosted.”
Landis was asked what donated blood is used for,”Every two seconds in the United States, someone is in need of lifesaving blood. Now, that could be due to cancer chemotherapy treatment that’s required as part of an ongoing standing appointment. A patient may have to help recover and help increase their chances of winning a successful battle against a major illness like that. But we also have situations for maternal health care, whether that’s for babies or for for mothers during childbirth and labor. They can face situations where they require large amounts of blood or blood products transfused. But also, there’s the situations that occur with trauma. And so those are the everyday disasters and emergencies that may happen. The unexpected, really. And that could be an injury, a fall or a car crash. But trauma centers certainly do require a large volume of blood and blood product to help treat patients that are facing emergency.”
Landis added there is a promotion to encourage donations,”One of the incentives this month is all donors that come there presenting. Donors come out to donate blood or platelets or plasma between January 1st and the 31st of this month are automatically entered to win a trip for two to the Super Bowl in Arizona.”
