The Blood Connection Has Urgent Need for O-Negative

Raleigh, NC (April 2, 2019) – Spring is in the air and pollen is back with a vengeance. With many people feeling the effects of allergy season, The Blood Connection is asking those who feel well to donate blood now. TBC has an urgent need for O-Negative blood, the universal blood type.

O-Negative donors ensure that blood is available for hospital patients, whenever they need it. One donation, one simple decision to give, can save up to three lives. As the primary blood supplier for almost twenty hospitals in the Triangle area, O-Negative donors who give with TBC are making sure their families and neighbors are taken care of, especially in emergency situations. The need for O-Negative blood never stops. It’s needed hour by hour to help a
multitude of patients. That cannot be underestimated. Sharing life in this time of need is the perfect picture of neighbors selflessly helping neighbors.

“While every donation is vitally needed, O- negative can be received by all hospital patients whether they’re an O, A, B or AB blood type, and this is crucial in trauma situations,” said TBC
President and CEO Delisa English. “It’s a non-stop critical need. One in seven people who visit a hospital need blood. Unfortunately, less than ten percent of eligible donors actually give. And, national statistics show that every two seconds, someone in the U.S. needs blood. Those numbers speak for themselves.”

English says an unexpected trauma can require 20 pints of blood or more. If there happens to be multiple traumas that require blood, the community supply could be dramatically reduced. TBC needs the community’s support to provide no matter what. Cancer patients are usually the number one recipients of blood products, but blood is also needed for burn victims, premature infants, car accident victims, heart surgery patients and organ transplant patients, to name a few. Since blood cannot be replicated, volunteer donors are the only source of blood products.

TBC is asking O-Negative donors to step up and help their neighbors in Central and Eastern North Carolina communities. Although TBC is specifically requesting O-negative blood donations, all blood types are needed. Blood donors must be healthy, weigh at least 110 pounds, and be 17 years old or 16 with written parental consent.

Donors can visit http://www.thebloodconnection.org to find a blood drive. They can also give at the local TBC donation center: 5925 Glenwood Avenue, Raleigh, NC. TBC also welcomes businesses and organizations that may be able to host a blood drive. To sponsor a blood drive, call 864-751-3019.

About The Blood Connection

Founded in 1962 in Greenville, SC, The Blood Connection (TBC) is the largest independently managed, non-profit community blood center in the region. It recruits donors and collects blood within 52 counties in South Carolina, Georgia and North Carolina. In 2011, The Blood Connection started to expand, first into Western North Carolina. TBC continued to grow, and six years later, started serving parts of Central NC around Raleigh, as well as coastal areas of NC.

Most recently, the blood center has expanded into Charleston, SC.
Every two seconds, someone in the US needs a life-saving blood transfusion, and volunteer donors are the only source of blood and platelets. TBC’s mission is to ensure all hospital partners have the blood supplies needed for patients at any given time. All of the blood received through donations goes right back into the communities that we serve. On average, it takes more than 500 blood donations per day to maintain an adequate blood supply. One donation can save up to three lives. In locally-driven operations, neighbors are helping neighbors, but only through a
partnership with the community.

Licensed and regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, TBC collects blood from donors through bloodmobiles, portable field units, and fixed donation sites. It holds blood drives every day and distributes blood, platelets, and plasma each year to connect volunteer blood donors, hospitals, and patients needing life-saving transfusions. For more information, contact The Blood Connection or visit http://www.thebloodconnection.org.