Almost 40 percent of the U.S. population is eligible to give blood but only about 10 percent do.
An American needs blood every two seconds and blood components are used in many different ways.
“You are saving someone’s life every time you give blood,” Dani L. Craft with Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center told the Fairbury Rotary Club on Tuesday.
The main place blood is used is cancer patients and, according to Craft, one in seven patients that enter a hospital will need a blood transfusion. Since blood has a shelf life, drives will never over collect.
“We do blood and that is all we do,” Craft explained. “We are research based.”
Schools, businesses, churches and clubs can all hold blood drives. The Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center supplies blood in four states and was founded in 1974, regulated by the Food and Drug Administration.
“Blood can only be transfused if it is prescribed by a healthcare provider,” Craft said.
The organization is a provider for 115 hospitals, including OSF Healthcare and UnityPoint Health. The mission-focused group has mobile blood drives all across the region, including at OSF Healthcare Saint James – John W. Albrecht Medical Center in Pontiac.
Drives at the Pontiac hospital are planned for: Aug. 14, Oct. 9 and Dec. 4 of this year and Feb. 5, April 9, June 11, Aug. 13, Oct. 8 and Dec. 3 in 2021. A donation appointment at one of these drives can be made by contacting 815-842-4935 or by visiting www.bloodcenter.org and using sponsor code 71095.
