According to The Red Cross, every two seconds, someone needs a blood transfusion in the United States.
\nCurrently there is less than one day\u2019s supply of O Negative and B Negative in the 100-county region. There is less than two days\u2019 supply of O Positive, A Positive, B Positive and A Negative.
\nThe Greater Alleghenies Blood Services Region must collect at least 1,000 units of blood each weekday to meet the needs of the area.
\nDuring the summer months, fewer blood drives are held. Summer drives are also often smaller. Although collections are down, the need for blood remains steady.
\nAccording to Taunia Oechslin, Senior Director, Recruitment, Greater Alleghenies Region, the need for blood transfusions for accident victims, cancer patients, surgical patients and others continues year-round while significant sources for blood donors decline during the summer.
\n\u201cEach year our region collects about a fifth of its blood supply at high schools and colleges, two types of donor sites that for the most part are unavailable during the summer,\u201d said Oechslin.
\n\u201cVacations and the potential for hot, humid weather makes it much more difficult to schedule enough blood drives to collect the 1,000 units needed each weekday in our 100-county service area.\u201d
\nOechslin urges area residents to donate blood at upcoming bloodmobiles and also encourages businesses, churches and community organizations to consider adding a Red Cross blood drive to their event calendars.
\nTo be eligible to give blood, an individual must be at least 17 years of age, weight at least 105 pounds and be in generally good health.
\nAccording to a release from The Red Cross, approximately half of the population is eligible to give blood, however only five percent donate each year.
\nThe next opportunity for individuals to donate blood in the area will be Wednesday, June 22 at the Bellwood Senior Center, Main Street, Bellwood.
\nAnyone with questions regarding eligibility may call the nursing collections department at 1-800-542-5663. For more information about local blood drives, call 1-800-Give-Life or visit www.redcrosslife.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
According to The Red Cross, every two seconds, someone needs a blood transfusion in the United States. Currently there is less than one day\u2019s supply of O Negative and B Negative in the 100-county region. There is less than two days\u2019 supply of O Positive, A Positive, B Positive and A Negative. The Greater Alleghenies […]<\/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-42866","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\/42866","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=42866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42866\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}