The month of January was National Blood Donor Month and one official of Trinity Health System in Steubenville said the pace of contributions was very strong.
The need, however, remains at crisis levels because Americans lost the ability to donate during the pandemic and because most do not realize the need until personal impact.
“January was National Blood Donor Month, and we encouraged local residents to donate blood because of the need that is very real,” explained Theresa Clark from Trinity Health Systems. “When you donate blood locally, it really helps the community where you reside because the donation stays right there in your area. There are times when we’re asked to donate to other areas when a tragedy takes place, but most of it stays right here.
“Here at Trinity we used about 2,000 units of blood during 2022, and that directly helped about 900 of our local patients,” she explained. “The Red Cross has been experiencing shortages since before Covid, and we know that donations fell off a lot while we all were in pandemic mode. It wasn’t good for the overall blood supply.”
Thankfully, Clark reported a decrease in demand for units of blood in 2022.
“That’s because during the pandemic we had patients who were sicker than what they normally are, and that is because Covid was making everything so much worse,” she detailed. “But it was still close to our average and that’s why we stressed the need during the month of January.”
The Need Is Real
Pint by pint. That’s how blood donations are collected during all of the events held throughout the Wheeling-Steubenville area each year.
Nationwide, according to the American Red Cross, nearly 7 million Americans donated almost 14 million units of whole blood in 2021. In January 2022, the non-profit declared its first-ever national blood crisis.
“I know people hear the need for donations a lot, but the impact of the pandemic really has everyone in emergency mode because of how important units of blood are when treating people in our facilities,” Clark said. “I do remind people that it is your opportunity to save a life because that’s exactly what those units of blood are used for, and in reality, every unit of blood that’s donated has the potential of saving four to five lives.
“I know we hear about the Red Cross always being in emergency mode when it comes to blood supply and donations, and that’s because they truly are. It’s always urgent for everyone in the medical field because of the importance the blood plays in caring for others when they need it the most,” she said. “It does seem as if there’s always something, like a disaster somewhere that’s injured a lot of people all at once, or something like a pandemic that locked us all into our homes and we weren’t allowed to go to blood donation events.”
That’s why, even though the official donor month is now over, Clark always will remind residents about the need.
“It’s not like the need just disappears the other 11 months of the year. There’s always a need for blood donations and that’s why there are so many blood drives here in the valley during the course of the year,” she said. “It’s true that most people don’t think about the need for blood until they’re a patient in need of it for some reason.
“No one wants to be that patient or that family member who’s told that there’s not blood for them when they need it the most,” Clark added. “That’s why we’ll always ask people to be heroes.”
