Date: Fri 02-Jul-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: CURT

Quick Words:

edink-blood-drive

Full Text:

ED INK: Our Bleeding Blood Supply

The American Red Cross will conduct a blood drive on Wednesday, July 7, at

Edmond Town Hall. All the usual donors will show up. Or, to put it another

way, almost everyone will stay home.

Sixty percent of the nation's population is eligible to donate blood, yet only

five percent take the time to roll up their sleeves. Yet every two seconds,

someone needs a blood transfusion, and blood products help innumerable cancer

patients, persons undergoing surgery, burn victims, and patients suffering

from shock or dehydration. A transfusion for a person with hemophilia can

require donations from hundreds of people. All these medical services go on

day after day, and most people believe they always will. But this week,

Surgeon General David Satcher reported that next year at this time there will

not be enough blood to go around unless blood donations increase

significantly.

The National Blood Data Resource Center predicts that next year, Americans

will donate just under 11.7 million units of blood, yet hospitals are expected

to need 11.9 million units of blood. That means that starting next year,

doctors will have to decide who will get needed blood and who will not.

Clearly, the status quo is not good enough. The blood supply is itself

bleeding. Donations are declining by one percent a year while demand is

growing at one percent a year. Newtown has shown in the past that it will

respond generously when the lives at risk are those of people we know. At a

blood drive last year to benefit Thomas Ward in his battle against cancer,

donors overwhelmed a blood drive event and had to be turned away. But what of

the countless people we don't know who will need blood this first week in July

because of accidents or disease? How will we respond to them?

We will learn the answer to that question at the July 7 blood drive at Edmond

Town Hall from 8:30 am to 1:15 pm and 1:30 to 6:45 pm. To make an appointment,

call 800/GIVE LIFE (800/448-3543) or e-mail the American Red Cross at:

Bloodct@usa.redcross.org.