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What if your mother suddenly has a terrible heart attack and now needs open heart surgery. Picture your son or daughter getting into car wreck and needs an emergency blood transfusion. Imagine a sibling having leukemia, and needs regular blood transfusions to survive. Not exactly what you want to think about on a Sunday afternoon, but these are the harsh realities of the world we live in. Many of you may have experience with these tragedies, and lost. If your thinking “I wish I knew of a way to help” well there is a way. With the simple donation of blood, platelets or plasma, you could save the life of a loved one or a complete stranger.
There are many reasons why a person would require blood from a donor, car accidents, serious burns, and people with cancer, leukemia, heart, and liver diseases. A person dying from a failed organ may have to give up a transplant from lack of blood to help with the transfusion.
It is estimated that 4.5 million Americans will need blood this year. Of the Thirty Seven percent of Americans able to donate each year and only Ten percent actually do. This leaves America’s blood supply dangerously low. Only healthy able bodied people can donate blood, this also limits the number of people who can donate. Donated blood can be stored for up to forty-two days. There are several different types of blood A, B, AB and O each type can be positive or negative.
Some blood types can only accept blood from the same type, making it very scary if that type hasn’t been donated. For example the O positive blood type is the universal donor, but O positive can only receive from another O positive donor.
The average blood transfusion needs three pints of blood. Blood cannot be made or harvested, so donation is the only way to get blood. Just one blood donation made can save up to three human lives.
After all the facts you have just received I am