The United States is currently facing a blood crisis, according to blood donation centers.
Agencies such as the American Red Cross and ConnectLife are urgently calling out for donors.
According to experts, a blood crisis means blood banks are one serious accident or emergency away from not being able to help save lives. Donation centers are asking for all eligible donors to make an appointment to reverse this crisis.
“If you are an O-positive, O-negative donor, you are especially needed," Zachary Kineke, ConnectLife's blood donor communications director, said. "But there is no blood type out there that we are not going to be able to find someone who's going to need it in Western New York. If you can donate blood, your blood will help save lives here.”
ConnectLife supplies 75% of the blood used at hospitals in Western New York, and it is having a hard time keeping up.
Regional communications director for the American Red Cross, Meg Rossman, said, indeed, this has been a hard summer.
“This is the second national blood crisis that the American Red Cross has announced in our history, and that's because blood donations have fallen to a four-year summer low, which is worsening the summer shortage that we came out and announced earlier in July," Rossman said. "So we're asking donors to take action immediately to help save lives.”
You must be over the age of 16 to donate blood. An appointment only lasts about 30 minutes, Kineke said. Up to three lives can be saved by one donation, according to officials.
“Donating is really the easiest way that you can make an impact on your community," Kineke said. "Just by sitting in a chair for 10 to 15 minutes, you are potentially saving the lives of three people at local hospitals, and I think that that's a pretty incredible thing. There are then up to three people out there in the community who you might never meet who are alive today because of you.”
Appointments can be booked online at the ConnectLife or Red Cross websites for various locations around Western New York.
