Why donate blood?
Approximately every two second in the United States, someone finds themselves in need of blood. This could be for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to emergency surgery, blood transfusions, and even cancer treatments! If that isn’t appealing enough, also consider that you as a donor also get a certain perk aside from knowing that you got to help someone: it is basically a free test to check on your blood health! The Red Cross states that “The need for blood is constant. But only about 3% of age-eligible people donate blood yearly.” That simply means that there just are not enough people donating to keep up with the need for blood donations to possibly help save a life.
Contrary to popular belief, every blood type is needed at all times, not just O+ or O-. However, O+, O-, A-, and B- are all highly encouraged to donate to Power Red. It is similar to a whole blood donation, expect for the fact that a specialist will collect two units of exclusively-red blood cells. People with type AB blood are highly encouraged to donate plasma, since they are the universal plasma donors! Often, plasma is used to help people who have suffered from burn-related injuries or other emergencies!
The most important thing to keep in mind altogether is the fact that donating your blood, more often than not, costs you so little when it could mean the difference between life or death for someone else. Blood cannot be manufactured and modern science only allows for donations from people of eligible age and lacking in blood related-conditions. It is so important that we bring this statistic of 3% up much more, we cannot have another issue in our medical care that restricts so many people from receiving the life-saving assistance that they need.