Trauma patients and people facing complex surgeries, premature babies or patients undergoing organ transplantation. Modern medicine is not possible without safe, reliable blood. The number of liver transplants, for example, rose from 2,201 to 4,700 between 1989 and 1999, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. Each transplant can use as many as 100 units of blood, and some far more. We have achieved great advances in the treatment of cancer and are on the cusp of many more.
Blood is needed for patients undergoing aggressive chemotherapy.
Treatment of sickle cell anemia, a disease that strikes and cripples many within the African-American community, is being diagnosed increasingly and its treatment requires regular blood transfusions. The list could go on and on. Others see additional societal pressures at play. Dr. Scott Murphy, who is the medical director for the Red Cross Blood Services Penn-Jersey Region, told the News Hour that our fast pace of life might be blinding us to this important need. I think we have a hectic kind of frenzied lifestyle in the United States.