News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Blood donations become even more important during what Blood Assurance calls the “100 Deadliest Days of Summer.”
Media Relations Coordinator Brooke Katz said Memorial Day starts a period of more serious car accidents and other summer injuries, when emergency blood transfusions become more common. Katz said blood donations also decrease during the summer because a large amount of their donations come from high school blood drives.
“You have families taking vacations, and I just don’t think it’s necessarily top of mind for a lot of people, but the need doesn’t stop,” Katz said. “We still have those car crashes every day. We still have cancer patients every day that need treatment. We still have sickle cell patients every day that need those transfusions.”
Katz said a person can donate whole blood once every fifty-six days. She said another reason donating is so important is that blood is a medicine that cannot be created in a lab.
“There’s no magic way to get it other than people just out of the kindness of their heart stepping up and donating,” Katz said.
Katz said accidents go up in this window because there are more people out on roadways as they vacation throughout the season. She said it is important to remember that there is always a need for blood donations to save the lives of people in your community.
“We know that people have a heart for it,” Katz said. “We know that people understand it’s important. You see it. You see it all the time when there are mass tragedies, like a mass shooting or a tornado. People will line up out of the door to help in those situations. But the reality is there’s some tragic instance affecting somebody every single day in your community.”
The Blood Assurance Center in Cookeville is open for donations. Check the website for other blood drives happening around the region.
“We want to see people repeat donations,” Katz said. “The more that you’re able to come in, the better we are in terms of a supply. And one donation can save up to three lives. So just think about that. Over the course of a year, that’s a lot of people you’re helping.”
