NYBC calls for blood donations

Patients Need Your Help Right Now

New York Blood Center (NYBC), serving more than 20 million people in New York City, Long Island, the Hudson Valley, New Jersey, and parts of Connecticut and Pennsylvania, calls upon the communities it serves to remember your neighbors during this slow, late summer period for blood donations – and schedule a donation appointment or consider sponsoring a blood drive, because patients' needs do not take a summer break.

Shannon Tavarez of Queens, 11, is just one of many patients who have desperately needed blood donations this summer.  Shannon competed against thousands of young girls to win the part of young Nala, Simba's female counterpart in the Broadway production of The Lion King.    Now Shannon is hoping to win her battle against cancer, after she was diagnosed with leukemia in April 2010.  She is currently undergoing chemotherapy, and her chances of beating leukemia could increase with a bone marrow or cord blood transplant.  

"We are delighted that, among several potential matched cord blood units, we have one of good match and cell dose for this patient.  The cord blood unit can be sent to the transplant center as soon as needed," said Machi Scaradavou, MD, Medical Director of the National Cord Blood Program at New York Blood Center.

Throughout her fight, Shannon will need blood transfusions as well as platelets to recover from her chemotherapy.

The need for blood is constant due its shelf life of just 42 days, and the only place to get this precious resource is from volunteer blood donors.  Summer is the busiest time of year for emergency rooms and trauma centers, but with schools closed and people off for travel, there are fewer people available to donate blood at this time.

Hospital use of blood products remains high during the summer -- due to surgeries, emergencies and care of cancer patients.  Type O-negative blood, in particular, is used in exchange transfusions for newborn babies and pregnant women, and for premature babies in intensive care units.

People with Rh-negative blood, including A-, B- and O-, comprise just 15% of the population, yet their blood can be safely transfused to the remaining 85%.  People with O-negative blood are known as "universal donors" because their blood can be transfused into anyone.  Type O-negative blood is found in just 6 percent of the population, but is used more often by patients with other blood types, especially in emergency rooms and trauma situations.

Please consider becoming a blood donor.  If you have given blood in the past, please make an appointment to return and donate blood again this season.  You can also help patients in need by organizing a blood drive in your community, house of worship, or place of work.  New York Blood Center (NYBC) and its regions thank every individual blood donor and the wide variety of organizations that sponsor blood drives throughout the year.

To donate blood, please call Toll Free: 1-800-933-2566

Visit: www.nybloodcenter.org

If you cannot donate but still wish to participate in bringing lifesaving blood products to patients in need, please consider volunteering at a local blood drive.

Any company, community organization, place of worship, or individual may host a blood drive.  NYBC also offers special community service scholarships for students who organize community blood drives during the summer.  Blood donors receive free mini-medical exams on site including information about their temperature, pulse rate, blood pressure and hemoglobin level.  Eligible donors include those people at least age 16 (with parental permission or consent), who weigh a minimum of 110 pounds, are in good health and meet all Food & Drug Administration and NY or NJ State Department of Health donor criteria.  People over 75 may donate with a doctor's note.