PEORIA (25News Now) – Across the nation, the American Red Cross said more than 400 blood drives were canceled over the last month because of winter weather. This, as well as a particularly rough flu season, led to a shortage of blood for the organization.
“We understand this is usually a tough time for blood donation as well. If there’s anybody out there who has been on the fence or maybe used to be a blood donor or maybe just wants to do it for the first time, go out there and help people, this is a great time to do it,” said Jayce Eustice, a spokesperson for the Red Cross.
Blood donations are given to people who have been in an accident, mothers in childbirth, and people with sickle cell disease or cancer. Without transfusions, these patients would face serious risk, even death.
The blood bank ImpactLife supplies hospitals in Central Illinois like OSF and Carle. Their supply is doing fine, but they want to be able to send blood to other areas of the country hit hard by winter weather if they’re asked.
“The reasons that blood is transfused, you know they’re consistent, they don’t stop, they’re very important, cannot be delayed. It’s not a situation where we can say let’s just hold off on this until the roads are clear,” said Kirby Winn, a spokesperson for ImpactLife.
The blood banks say donors now are important because drives are sometimes canceled due to weather. Friday, an ImpactLife blood drive at a high school 90 minutes from Peoria had to be canceled because school was called off.
Emily Katrandjiev is a medical laboratory scientist at Carle Health who tests and prepares donated blood to get it ready for patients. She said even though the amount of blood donations can vary, hospitals always need it.
“Patients who do have chronic diseases like anemia that need to be transfused pretty often, they are still going need blood. And accidents can happen anytime. It’s important that the hospital stays prepared for anything,” Katrandjiev said.
Both the Red Cross and ImpactLife have blood donation centers in Peoria.
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