Winter weather \u2013 bitter cold, snow and ice \u2013 continue to disrupt American Red Cross Blood Services\u2019 community blood drives and platelet donor centers, preventing the 100-county blood region from replenishing critically low blood supplies.
\n\u201cDuring the last two weeks, wintry weather has forced the cancellation of a couple dozen blood drives, representing nearly 1,200 potential blood donations, and lower than usual donor turnout at remaining drives and platelet donor centers,\u201d said Jim Starr, CEO. \u201cSince February 5, we\u2019ve lost two day\u2019s worth of collections due to cold, snow and ice.\u201d
\nThe blood region, which serves nearly 100 hospitals, has a collection goal of 1,000 units per weekday and a couple hundred each weekend.
\nStarr said that as of yesterday the region had less than a day\u2019s supply of type O negative; only 46 units in reserve to support nearly 100 hospital customers. He added that with supplies of remaining blood types below a two-day supply, donors of all blood types are needed.
\nHe explained that the weather has also strained the region\u2019s supply of platelets, a product often needed by patients with cancer, leukemia and other serious illnesses.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re also calling upon those who give platelets at our donor centers in Altoona, Beaver, Greensburg, Johnstown and State College to make an appointment to donate and make every effort to keep appointments already scheduled,\u201d he added.
\nArea residents may donate at these upcoming Red Cross blood drives:
\n\u2022 Thursday, February 22 from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Link Computer Corporation, Stadium Drive, Bellwood;
\n\u2022 Wednesday, February 28 from 12:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Bellwood Senior Center, One Main Street, Bellwood;
\n\u2022 Wednesday, March 7 from noon to 5:30 p.m. at Epworth Manor, multi-purpose chapel, 925 S. Lincoln Avenue, Tyrone;
\n\u2022 Thursday, March 15 from noon to 6 p.m. at Tyrone Hookies Firehall, 1216 Blair Avenue, Tyrone and
\n\u2022 Friday, March 16 from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Tyrone Hospital classroom, One Hospital Drive, Tyrone.
\n\u201cDonation appointments may be scheduled at many of these sites,\u201d he commented. \u201cTo schedule your blood donation appointment where available, or to find a blood drive near you, visit www.redcrosslife.org or call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE. Someone\u2019s waiting for the gift only you can give.\u201d
\nIndividuals age 17 or older, who weigh at least 110 pounds and are in generally good health may be eligible to donate blood. Those with specific eligibility questions should call 1-800-542-5663.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Winter weather \u2013 bitter cold, snow and ice \u2013 continue to disrupt American Red Cross Blood Services\u2019 community blood drives and platelet donor centers, preventing the 100-county blood region from replenishing critically low blood supplies. \u201cDuring the last two weeks, wintry weather has forced the cancellation of a couple dozen blood drives, representing nearly 1,200 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39407\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}