Bonners Ferry Local Guide including all of Boundary County Idaho

Blood centers desperately need donations

Tuesday, June 12, 2007; KXLY

Although summer means relaxation for most people, workers at the Inland Northwest Blood Centers are nervous. Blood banks say that during this is the time of year, they get a low level of donations because people travel and do other activities during the warm weather. This is a problem because if donations keep slipping, then the blood center will no longer be able to help as many people who have accidents. On the national level, around four and a half million Americans would die each year if the blood centers did not exist. For the Spokane blood centers, the main concern is that they will not have enough blood to get through the summer slump. Mainly, the local centers are looking for O-positive blood because it is a universal blood that can treat numerous kinds of people. The Inland Northwest Blood center serves about 250,000 people every month and with just one unit of blood, the center can save three lives. The blood center says the number of surgeries and blood transfusions are starting to picking up in our area, but as summer begins, the number of donors is not matching the demand. A large part of the donation shortfall is due to the fact high school and college students are now out for summer. Student organizations usually make up more than 20% of all blood donations. What it does, it creates a problem where if we need a large quantity of blood for trauma patients or something like that, it puts those patients at potential risk, Vice President of technical services Steve McCormick said. Right now we are at a two day supply, we would like to have a 6 day supply for blood, If you would like to donate, the process takes about an hour to complete and blood centers are open to all donations. - Full Story