Published by Kirby Winn on Monday, December 19, 2022 in News Releases
(December 19, 2022 – Davenport, Iowa) – Citing projections of a 20% decrease in donations during the weeks of Christmas and New Year’s, ImpactLife urges all eligible donors to schedule an appointment to give blood and help avoid critically low blood inventories in the days ahead. The final weeks of the year are challenging because many groups are unable to schedule mobile blood drives and donors become busy with holiday events and travel. Yet there are still opportunities to give blood at community blood drives and donation centers across the blood center’s service region. To schedule an appointment for donation or for questions on eligibility for blood donation, call (800) 747-5401, schedule online at www.bloodcenter.org, or via the ImpactLife mobile app (www.bloodcenter.org/app).
“When trauma patients need blood, they need it within minutes, and it can be dozens of units to save one patient,” said Josh Dugal, Trauma Manager with SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital. It’s important to keep blood components “on the shelves” and ready to transfuse at a moment’s notice, he added, saying, “We also use emergency blood for patients in the operating rooms and ICUs with sometimes little to no notice.”
La’Ronda Harris of the laboratory and blood bank at HSHS Saint Elizabeth’s Hospital also spoke to the ongoing need for donors, saying “The laboratory is a 24/7 operation. Our patients’ needs don’t go on holiday. So as a blood donor, you really are impacting lives,” said Harris. “You may not see the end result, but our patients really do rely on your gift of life.”
ImpactLife Donor Promotions
To thank donors who schedule appointments for to give blood, ImpactLife will provide a voucher to redeem for an electronic gift card or donors can choose to make an equivalent value donation to Feeding America.
- First-time Whole Blood donors: choice of $25 electronic gift card or donation to Feeding America
- Returning Whole Blood donors: choice of $20 electronic gift card or donation to Feeding America
- Automated donation procedures (platelets, plasma, double red cell): choice of $25 electronic gift card or donation to Feeding America
Additional program details at www.bloodcenter.org/promotions
About ImpactLife
ImpactLife is a not-for-profit community organization providing blood services to 124 hospitals in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, and Wisconsin, as well as resource sharing partners across the country. Services extend from southcentral Wisconsin to St. Louis, Missouri and from Danville, Illinois to Chariton, Iowa. (See a map of the ImpactLife service region.) ImpactLife operates 22 Donor Centers and holds approximately 5000 mobile blood drives annually to provide blood components needed for patient transfusions at hospitals throughout our region.
For more information, see www.bloodcenter.org and find us @impactlifeblood on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Twitter, Snapchat, and YouTube.
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