It’s fairly common for blood donations to drop off in the summer, but this year the Red Cross is calling the situation a national crisis.
The blood supply is facing a four-year low, the Red Cross says in a statement, declaring a “blood crisis” last month for only the second time in its history.
They’re calling for people to give blood in August, and they’re offering a reward: Anyone who gives blood during August will get a $20 Amazon gift card by email.
The Red Cross is the primary provider of blood to about 60 hospitals in the area, and Curt Luthye, the executive director for the Red Cross chapter that serves Montgomery, Howard, and Frederick counties in Maryland, says the organization saw a 25% drop in blood donors in June. What the Red Cross calls a crisis, Luthye calls a “cliff that we fell off.”
A Bad Slump
It’s probably not the first time you’ve heard about a summer slump in blood donations. “We do kind of encounter this every summer,” Luthye says. Part of that is because people go on vacation; part of it is because many blood donors are actually high school students, and they don’t have school as a focal point for organizing and participating in blood drives.
But this year’s dropoff is particularly sharp, and Luthye isn’t sure why.
“There’s a lot of things going on in the world, right? People are thinking and caring about a lot of things, and it could be any number of those things. But it has certainly impacted the number of people showing up at blood drives.”
“Anytime we get severe weather, whether it’s a heat-related crisis or just thunderstorms or severe storms, all of those things impact drives on the regular,” Luthye says. “We just have seen it be much more serious this season.”
The thing is, the need for blood doesn’t go on holiday. Someone needs a blood transfusion every two seconds in the U.S., Luthye says, whether it’s for accidents and other emergency medical situations, problematic pregnancies and deliveries, as well as the babies who are born from these pregnancies, and more. “There’s a lot of ways that we use blood and blood products in the U.S. every single day. So yeah, it’s not just emergencies; it’s regular life.”
It’s Easy to Donate
And donating blood, Luthye says, is easy. “The whole blood process takes between 40 and 50 minutes, and that’s to get yourself there, get checked in, do the health history, get tested for things like your iron levels, and then actually do the blood draw.”
After that, “You get to sit down and talk to one of our really lovely volunteers while you eat some crackers or cookies and drink some juice.” As soon as you’re sure you’re feeling OK, off you go with the rest of your day. You can even speed up the process by downloading the Red Cross Blood app and answering some of the preliminary questions from home.
There are plenty of places to go to donate blood such as houses of worship, businesses, organizations such as Rotary International. You can find places to donate blood on the Red Cross Blood app, or by going to redcrossblood.org and typing in your zip code.
Luthye says, “It’s easy; it’s a fairly quick process, and you’re actually making a difference, a positive difference in somebody’s life.”
Feature image by Aidman/stock.adobe.com
