Patients in our hospitals need about 600 pints a day. Despite a steady flow of donors, the current inventory in the region is less than optimum. In January, the blood region collected and distributed a record 14,279 units of blood. Doctors are saving lives. Sophisticated surgeries are no longer unusual.
Organ transplants can take hundred's of units of blood.
Bleeding ulcers and hip replacements use blood therapy. Cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy need regular transfusions of platelets to rejuvenate their own blood supply. For many people that includes blood transfusions. Doctors are making miracles in the operating room and elsewhere, but the common denominator is a ready blood supply. The Red Cross invites everyone to visit a donation center or community blood drive.