Red Cross Calls for Blood Donations
Wednesday, January 13 2010
by Eric Hodge
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Red Cross officials say there's a severe shortage of blood donations across the state. The organization says it only has about one day's worth of supply on hand in the Triangle. Barry Porter is the Red Cross Regional Director in the southeast. He says major hospitals need to have at least a three-day supply on hand to deal with emergencies and regular patient needs.
"January's called National Blood Donor Month to bring the awareness that after the holidays and getting people back into the swing of regular routines, we typically run into these shortages," says Porter. "And so then you get it exacerbated by severe weather with winter weather having its impact this year."
Porter says winter weather has lowered turnout at blood drives and forced some cancelations. He urges people who want to give blood to go online to find their nearest blood donor center at www.redcrossblood.org.
