Blood donations are in high demand after last month’s winter storm cancelled blood drives across the state.
The severe weather caused twelve blood drives in Alabama to be called off. About 200 pints of blood were unable to be collected. Each pint can save up to three lives. Drivers were also unable to deliver blood because of the poor road conditions.
Annette Rowland is Communications Director for the Alabama and Mississippi Region of the Red Cross. She said blood donations are continually needed regardless of circumstances.
“Emergencies don’t wait on us and on weather. A lot of times, especially with the weather being the way it is, you’ve got a lot of car accidents, and people need blood transfusions,” she said. “You also have those routine blood transfusions that people with sickle cell have, or leukemia patients. The need for blood is constant, no matter what time of the year it is, no matter what season.”
Rowland said the work blood donors and volunteers perform is “essential.”
“It’s the one thing that we cannot pay for, so without the generous volunteers who roll up their sleeves to save lives, we wouldn’t have blood donations. So we count on the generosity of people to do that, to be able to help people and to save lives.”
Rowland also said there are many “myths” about people’s eligibility to donate blood. She encourages potential donors who have questions to reach out to a local Red Cross chapter. Potential donors can visit RedCrossBlood.org to find donation sites near them.