In 2000, the Red Cross collected more than 6.3 million blood donations from healthy donors. In this country, every two seconds someone needs a blood transfusion. The Red Cross works to avoid both shortages of blood and excesses in the supply by carefully planning blood drives and by scheduling donors for fixed locations. Very few people donate blood - about 5 percent of the eligible population. Volunteer blood donors give blood at Red Cross donor centers or at blood drives conducted at high schools, colleges, churches, companies and community organizations.
People can also donate at hospital-based blood donor centers.
Receiving Blood Transfusions Blood for patient transfusion is the safest it has ever been. The Red Cross uses only volunteer blood donors, who must first undergo a thorough health history screening. A ninth NTL is under development in California. But when transfused to another person, these same leukocytes do not benefit the recipient. In fact, these foreign leukocytes in transfused red blood cells and platelets are often not well tolerated and have been associated with some types of transfusion complications.