United Blood Services Host Blood Drive at Icon Cinema Today

Today, beginning at 5:00 p.m., United Blood Services will be hosting a blood drive at Icon Cinema, located at 2020 N. Bryant Blvd. The blood drive will continue until 9:00 p.m. tonight.

Anyone who donates will receive a Star Trek T-Shirt, as well as an Icon Cinema gift card with $10 on it, including a free large popcorn.

As of now, blood donation levels are scarcely low. The blood banks are in an emergency critical appeal for all blood types. This is a nation-wide problem.

Currently, many blood banks only have a day and a half of blood on hand.

Linda Grace, with United Blood Services, stated “What we consider adequate in the blood banking industry is a three-day supply of each blood type.”

Right now the blood bank has a day supply of O positive, the most prevalent blood type. Other blood types, such as O negative, have only half a day supply left at the blood bank, and that is the universal blood type, mainly used in traumas and emergencies.

Grace said, “We just keep teetering at a very difficult level. Part of it is because of summer time. Schools are out, [and] that counts for about a percent of all the blood that is donated. Also, people are on vacation; plus, with the Zika virus, the deferrals from that have really impacted people being able to donate.”

Grace then went on to explain how long blood is still valuable after it has been taken from the body. She stated, “Red blood cells have a day shelf life. They are used in trauma. Plasma can be frozen, so it has a one-year shelf life. [Plasma] is used to replace volume and also is part of the clotting for the blood. Then there are platelets that have a five-day shelf life. [They are] used in heart surgery and cancer patients.”

It is known that, when donating blood, a person can help save three lives because the blood has been stripped into the components listed above.

Lastly, Grace stated, “Look to the person sitting next to you, or standing next to you. Think about the fact that if they needed blood right now, would you make the choice to go donate and save their life?”