The Importance of Donating Blood
The Importance of Donating Blood
ATTENTION:
I’d like to ask you to completely clear your mind for a moment. Now, imagine your father has just suffered a heart attack and must undergo open-heart surgery in order to repair the damage. Imagine your little nephew or niece was born with a heart defect and required daily transfusions of blood in order to have a chance at survival. Imagine your best friend has just been diagnosed with leukemia, a disease requiring regular transfusions of platelets. These images can seem a bit haunting, but events like these do happen and unfortunately some of you may even have experienced them already. Naturally you'd hope and expect the hospital to have enough resources to facilitate the return to health, or to prolong their lives. And naturally you'd want to do everything in your power to help. There is one way you can help, that is by donating blood.
MAIN POINTS:
Today I am here to address the issues created by the lack of blood donors, how to increase the number of participants, and who could be affected by the repercussions if we do not make an attempt to donate blood.
TRANSITION:
Let’s begin by addressing the problems found when the blood needs are greater than the blood supply.
I.NEED:
The Hudson Valley Business Journal notes that “Every 2.5 seconds, someone needs a blood transfusion”. Beyond that, more than 38,000 blood donations are needed every day. Even larger than that, a total of 30 million blood components are transfused each year in the U.S. (this information was on www.redcrossblood.org, the official website of the American Red Cross). While these numbers describe the amount of transfusions needed, the supply is much smaller. The number of blood donations collected in the U.S. in a year is 16 million. The number of patients who actually receive blood in the U.S. in a year is 5 million (American Red Cross). This causes many different problems because of the amount of people who need this blood. The many examples include
ATTENTION:
I’d like to ask you to completely clear your mind for a moment. Now, imagine your father has just suffered a heart attack and must undergo open-heart surgery in order to repair the damage. Imagine your little nephew or niece was born with a heart defect and required daily transfusions of blood in order to have a chance at survival. Imagine your best friend has just been diagnosed with leukemia, a disease requiring regular transfusions of platelets. These images can seem a bit haunting, but events like these do happen and unfortunately some of you may even have experienced them already. Naturally you'd hope and expect the hospital to have enough resources to facilitate the return to health, or to prolong their lives. And naturally you'd want to do everything in your power to help. There is one way you can help, that is by donating blood.
MAIN POINTS:
Today I am here to address the issues created by the lack of blood donors, how to increase the number of participants, and who could be affected by the repercussions if we do not make an attempt to donate blood.
TRANSITION:
Let’s begin by addressing the problems found when the blood needs are greater than the blood supply.
I.NEED:
The Hudson Valley Business Journal notes that “Every 2.5 seconds, someone needs a blood transfusion”. Beyond that, more than 38,000 blood donations are needed every day. Even larger than that, a total of 30 million blood components are transfused each year in the U.S. (this information was on www.redcrossblood.org, the official website of the American Red Cross). While these numbers describe the amount of transfusions needed, the supply is much smaller. The number of blood donations collected in the U.S. in a year is 16 million. The number of patients who actually receive blood in the U.S. in a year is 5 million (American Red Cross). This causes many different problems because of the amount of people who need this blood. The many examples include