Firewheel Town Center, First Baptist, Good Shepherd Catholic will host blood drives and invite all to help save lives.
There continues to be a wide gap between the number of eligible blood donors in north, central and east Texas and the number of them who actually give blood. At any given time, about 37 percent of the population qualifies to give blood and less than four percent is doing so. Surgeries and other treatments requiring transfusion therapy do not take a pause because of the seasonality of summer. Six hundred to 800 hospital patients daily will receive a transfusion. Many will receive more than one unit of blood or blood products.
Firewheel Town Center is hosting a blood drive from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, May 5 at 245 Cedar Sage Drive in the Carter BloodCare bus. For more information or to schedule an appointment time, contact Chris Mittendorf at 214-549-3969.
First Baptist Church of Garland is hosting a blood drive from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 16 at 425 S. 9th St. on the Carter BloodCare bus. For more information or to schedule an appointment time, contact Connie Miller at 972-276-5273.
Good Shepherd Catholic Church is hosting a blood drive from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, May 20 at 1224 Main Street in the Parish Hall. For more information or to schedule an appointment time, contact Jose Gotay at 214-542-5626.
There is no substitute for human blood. Individual qualities in a person’s blood produces a unique donation, even if the blood type is the same as another’s. A wide diversity of blood donors is also necessary to maintain a safe and sufficient blood supply that mirrors the population of potential patients in a hospital service area. If each eligible blood donor gave two or three times a year, there would seldom be a shortage of available blood or of specific blood types. Carter BloodCare prefers to see 1,000 blood donors a day to keep pace with demand.
Volunteer community blood donors make these life-saving gifts possible. One pint of whole blood can help at least three individuals because the blood is divided into the components of red cells, platelets and plasma. Other specialty treatments can be produced from the blood, as requested by physicians.
Eat a nutritious meal and drink plenty of water one to two hours before giving blood. All donors must weigh at least 110 pounds, feel well on the day of donation and present a government-issued photo ID each time they give blood.
Potential blood donors may volunteer beginning at age 16 with parental consent; 17-year-olds may give independently and there is no upper age limit for donating blood. For more information on donor eligibility and to make an appointment, call 1-800-366-2834 or visit carterbloodcare.org.
About Carter BloodCare: Carter BloodCare is a community based, non-profit blood center that provides life-saving transfusion resources to more than 200 medical facilities in 50-plus counties of north, central and east Texas. The 501(c)(3) organization is one of the largest blood programs in Texas, delivering more than 300,000 blood products annually to meet patients’ treatment requirements.