Saturday's Internet Edition, May 17, 2008.
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“Because of the weather and other factors, the need for blood typically increases during this time of year, and the ability of people to donate blood decreases,” said Robert “Bob” Ziegler, executive director of the High Point-Thomasville Chapter of the American Red Cross. “People in the hospitals still need blood, even when driving conditions sometimes make it difficult for people to get out and donate.”
While the Thomasville and Triad area had some difficulty during recent snow, sleet and freezing-rain activity, other parts of the country were hit with much more severe weather conditions, creating a national blood shortage.
“When the Red Cross alerted us that last week’s bad weather had created an urgent need for blood donations, we thought that sponsoring a drive in honor of Dr. Jim Errico would be a wonderful way to honor his memory and his immeasurable generosity to our community,” said Grace Terrell, MD, president and CEO of Cornerstone Health Care in High Point.
Cornerstone’s drive will be held Friday at the High Point-Thomasville Red Cross Chapter at 815 Phillips Ave. in High Point, from 10 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. The chapter will be holding a drive in Thomasville at Wal-Mart on Saturday, from 10 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. In March, the High Point Regional Association of Realtors will be holding its own blood drive in the Chair City. Details on that will be forthcoming.
“The winter storm has had an impact on the already low blood supply,” said Robert Fechner, chief executive officer of the Carolinas Blood Services Region of the American Red Cross, which serves 103 hospitals in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee. “We are now asking everyone who can donate to visit a blood center or blood drive to help restore supplies to adequate levels.”
A Red Cross press release read, “Last week’s winter storm canceled or impacted scheduled Red Cross blood drives preventing the collection of more than 625 units of blood or platelets.”
Ziegler, who spoke Wednesday to the Thomasville Rotary Club about the blood supply problem, had some interesting statistics about blood supply and blood donation that he had received from Red Cross Biomedical Services.
“Of everybody who goes to a hospital, one out of 10 of them are going to need blood, yet out of all of the people, who are eligible to give blood, only 5 percent do,” Ziegler said. “If we could convert that 5 percent to 10 percent, there would never be a blood shortage.”
Requirements for potential donors to be eligible to give blood include a minimum age of 17, a minimum weight of 110 pounds and general good health.
Ziegler had other numbers of a possible solution to a low blood-supply problem.
“A person can give blood every 56 days; that means eight times a year,” Ziegler noted. “If everybody who gives blood once a year gives blood twice a year, we would never have a blood shortage. We would be able to save a lot more lives.”
Those who would like to be involved are encouraged to call Amy Stroud, the local chapter’s director of program operations, at 885-9104, ext. 228.
Staff Writer Kevin Reid can be reached at 472-9500, ext. 230, or at reid@tvilletimes.com.