Inside Duke Medicine
True love means donating blood
posted February 12th, 2009Celebrate Valentine’s Day early by donating blood at Duke University Hospital’s Valentine’s Day Blood Drive on Thursday, Feb. 12. The drive will be held in the Searle Center Lecture Hall from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Those who donate will receive a free T-shirt.
For more information and to make an appointment to give blood, visit www.duke.givesblood.org.
During the winter season, the blood supply often suffers tremendously, but the need for blood is constant. This is why the Red Cross and Duke University Hospital have teamed up to challenge donors to donate blood and help make sure the blood supply in our region remains at an adequate level.
Hospitals throughout North Carolina rely heavily on the American Red Cross for blood and blood products. According to Donald H. Bennett, administrative director of transfusion service and stem cell laboratories at Duke University Hospital, Duke alone needed the support from over 50,000 donors to supply nearly 70,000 units of blood products for its patients last year.
The American Red Cross Carolinas Blood Services Region relies on volunteer blood donors to meet hospital demand in our communities. Accident victims as well as patients with cancer, sickle cell disease, blood disorders, and other illnesses receive life-saving transfusions every day. There is no substitute for blood and volunteer donors are the only source.
Blood can be safely donated every 56 days. Most healthy people age 17 and older (16-year-olds with parental consent), who weigh at least 110 pounds, are eligible to donate blood.